Bloodstained Bullets and Mystified Emotions
by Silver Oasis
Summary: The gates of the Lifestream are forced open by a poisoned soul, and souls are escaping, causing it to become weak. On the surface, changes are occuring, AVALANCHE is forced to find a way to stop it. VinYuf, CloTif, CidSher
1. Prologue

Awesome, look, I'm attempting to post my second fanfiction pretty well a year after I wrote and posted Saviour. It's like magic, magic I say! Yeah...

Disclaimer – Obviously I don't own any of the original Final Fantasy 7 characters, and such… though I do wish I owned Vincent nod, nod P

Anyhow, this is going to end up a Vincent/Yuffie, as well as a Cid/Shera, and Cloud/Tifa, so if you really, really don't like these pairings, either skip the parts with them, or turn back now p. Constructive criticism is appreciated, tell me what you think. Alright, I'll stop my generally useless rambling now, and get on with the story ;)

All my Life – Foo Fighters  
All my life I've been searching for somethin'  
Somethin' never comes, never leads to nothin'  
Nothin' satisfies, but I'm getting close  
Closer to the prize at the end of the rope

Prologue – Death is the Beginning ------------------------------------------- 

Hector stared down at the needle, observing the deep amethyst fluid as it waited ever so patiently in the tube, just waiting for it to be injected, so it may do its work. Oh, and what marvellous work it would have. This rich violet fluid, this was his creation, his baby. He had created it, nursed it, and moulded it to perfection. Dear, sweet, perfection.

Yes, this simple liquid was his life's work, and he'd bet his life that it worked, literally. He'd spent so long creating it, and did nothing else. He barely made time to eat, and only slept when he was on the verge of passing out. This little creation would fulfill his life goal, and he wouldn't mess it up, like Hojo did with Jenova. That fool.

He was a real nutcase, everyone knew it. He'd talked to him one or twice, and they shared their views on science. Indeed he was a real psychopath. Hector wasn't a psychopath, no, just a scientist. A bit eccentric, true, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He was passionate about his work, more passionate than Hojo ever was. He didn't hate Hojo, despite how much he mentally bashed the man, in fact he nearly envied him for the creation of Jenova, despite the fact that it was a failure.

Well, not exactly a failure, but for god's sake, that puny group--HURRICANE was it? No, AVALANCHE, yes, that's it. Well anyway, that puny group of mere humans destroyed both Jenova and Sephiroth, mind you, they were both his experiments. Hell, the puny group even ended up murdering him in the end. How pathetic.

He waved away his thoughts, and his grip on the fragile needle tube tightened, very slightly. He wouldn't risk cracking it, not after all this time.

"Soon, my dear experiment. Soon you'll have your time to shine," he muttered, caressing it with his free hand, fingertips just brushing against the cool tube.

He growled at himself suddenly, disgusted at his sudden affection for his experiment. If he continued to act like this, talking to a mere liquid and caressing the tube as if it were his lover, he'd surely be considered a psycho. He was no psycho, he couldn't be.

He had never been a psycho, and those people, those people who had called themselves his family, and his friends, they had backstabbed him. They all betrayed him, and they regretted it, oh, they did. He could just imagine their screams, echoing through the room, hoping that someone would help them. Idiots, little did they know, no one would help them. They had been trapped, and he finished them off, and he was glad he did it. There was no remorse for the things he'd done, and there never would be. They deserved what they got.

He inhaled the warm laboratory air, filling his lungs to the hilt one final time. It was time to stop dwelling on the past, and move into the future, to actually test out his experiment. No, not test out, for that suggested he wasn't sure what the outcome would be, and he knew what it would be. He'd spent years and years researching the outcome of the experiment alone, but still, a lot of it was only theory.

He sighed to himself, and simply slid the needle into his left forearm, allowing his dominant hand to inject the amethyst fluid. As soon as it was all in, he pulled out the needle, and tossed it on the table next to him, ignoring the sudden crack of glass he heard. It didn't matter, not anymore.

He gasped, as a flicker of pain coursed through him, shooting up his spine. It was momentary, but it was incredibly painful. A gasp of pain escaped his lips as there was another course of pain, this time it lasted longer. The virus was taking over him, everything, his body, his soul, his spirit, his very being.

He laughed coolly, knowing that his body was dying and that his experiment was reacting just as he predicted it would. He continued to laugh even as the pain became so intense that tears began to burn his jade eyes.

His laugh came to a sudden halt as the pain was too intense to even make a noise, sounds were caught in his throat, like a robin in a cage, fluttering, hoping to be released. Little did they know that they would never be free, that they would be caught in the prison of his throat forever. His world went black before they could be released.

His body hit the ground, but his poisoned soul was no longer there. It had since left the shell of his body. It was on its way to the Lifestream, the planet's life source, energy source. Everything was going according to plan, just as he knew it would. Everything would work out, it had to. _It had to._


	2. Mansion of Nightmares

Disclaimer – I don't own anything from FF7.

The actual first chapter, greatness, tell me how you like it .

Chapter 1 – Mansion of Nightmares-------------------------------------------

Vincent's crimson eyes flew open, his body stiff from that nightmare he'd just been exposed to. He always had nightmares, well, not always, not anymore. They weren't as frequent as they used to be, before he'd went on his little journey with AVALANCHE. He'd gotten his revenge on Hojo, and destroyed Sephiroth, therefore saving the planet. Two sins down, the rest of his list to go.

Oh, and he had many sins, so many that he must atone for, therefore making quite the long list. He'd murdered so many people, careless of the lives he took, and of the lives he destroyed. Life is a precious thing, he should have known that, everyone should know that. It was so fragile, like a glass figure, and if you didn't take care of it properly, if you were too careless with it, it would break. It would break and burst into millions of broken shards, and they would be lost forever. You couldn't fix a life once you destroyed it, it was gone, for eternity. He should have known that.

He closed his eyes, for a moment or two, and inhaled the musty scent of his coffin. He felt something strange inside his gut, it was poking at him, demanding for him to pay attention, and just to make it go away, he paid attention. Something was different, something was wrong, he felt it, clawing at him. Chaos felt it too, he always felt what Vincent did, and it was making him uneasy. Chaos being uneasy made Vincent uneasy, for very few things made that horrid demon feel as jittery as he did now.

He fidgeted slightly, though there was little extra room in his oddly scented coffin for movement. The planet was screaming, he could feel it, it was quivering beneath him, shuddering over and over, it was unmistakeable. Something was happening, something that was throwing the planet off balance, and it troubled Vincent. Troubled him enough that it gnawed at his insides, and he knew that he'd need to stop it from occurring, or at least tell Cloud that something was going on, just in case.

He easily pushed the coffin lid over, only to be barricaded with the smell of decaying bones and flesh. Unpleasant to say the least. He reached over to grab Death Penalty, lying lamely at the bottom of the coffin, while trying to avoid breathing through his nose.

He grasped hold of Death Penalty's cool handle, and exited the coffin. Once he was free of the tiny space he'd resided, he fled the room, his garnet cape trailing behind him, giving him an overdramatic flare. He continued down that incredibly old hallway which was composed of worn and broken bricks, until he came to the spiralled stairs. They were extremely rusted, and rickety, each step he took creaking dangerously, as if warning him that it could break at any moment.

Vincent ignored the warnings, and continued upwards, until he came to the room. It was painted with chipped blue paint, cobwebs and dust being the only decorations for the walls.

He stopped, and pulled his PHS out of his pocket. He flicked the machine open, and held it to his ear, checking to see if the ring tone was there. Unfortunately for him, there was no ring tone. The batteries were dead, and he obviously had no spares.

He sighed with disappointment when he realised he'd have to travel all the way to the Kalm by chocobo, something he really, really didn't want to do, but he knew it had to be done. Cloud had to know that something was wrong, and he knew that damned troubled feeling at the pit of his stomach, nibbling away at him, wouldn't go away until he did.

He exited his mansion, to find that the weather seemed nonexistent. It was neither warm nor cold, nor was it windy, nor were there clouds. The sky was simply grey, everything seemed to be frozen in time, paralysed in a state of neutrality.

When he looked out into the town, there was no one in the streets. It looked absolutely deserted. Vincent couldn't say that this didn't trouble him. Nibelheim was usually reasonably quiet, but not like this. He knew he wouldn't be helping anything if he just stood there dwelling on it, so he began to move. Perhaps whatever is affecting the planet, is affecting everything else as well, perhaps.

He walked around his mansion to where the chocobo stable lay. There his gold chocobo stood. Vincent idly wondered how the damned bird managed to stay alive, seeing as he hadn't left his coffin in over a year to feed the beast.

He pulled over the stable door, finding that the gold bird had managed to somehow undo the latch, which would explain why he wasn't laying in the corner of the stable, dead and rotting. He'd been clever enough to get out and get his own food. Why the bird had returned to this god-forsaken place was beyond Vincent.

"Come here… Sunshine," he said, muttering the bird's name, grabbing its attention almost immediately.

Sunshine, the name Yuffie had given it, despite Vincent's opposing glare. You can tell that she'd spent all day thinking on it, using all her wit to come up with such a clever name for the chocobo.

He pet the golden beast's head, ruffling its lovely feathers. They were surprisingly soft beneath his fingertips, and he would have been shocked, had he not already known that they were. Feathers usually held this somewhat rough texture to them, but not these feathers, these feathers were like pure silk.

He led the giant bird out of the stable, and saddled it up, so that he could ride it. Riding a chocobo bareback, which he had done before, was not a pleasant experience, and he wouldn't relive that experience if he had a choice in the matter.

He grasped hold of it's reins, and mounted himself atop it's back, giving it a little kick that told it to get going. The bird sped off, its speed damn near amazing. No other chocobo was a fast as a gold, they couldn't compete with it, despite how much it might want to.

He looked around, the scenery all a blur, and he knew he'd be at Costa del Sol in a little less than two hours. Once he got there, he would cross the water so that he could make his way to the Kalm, where Cloud and Tifa both lived. He'd tell them something was up, then he'd be on his merry way. Yes, that was a good plan.

The time passed, and the chocobo continued to race on, not so much as stopping for a breather. It raced across the water, ploughing through oncoming waves without so much as a second thought. The waves provided no trouble for the chocobo, the bird was quick enough that it cut through them with ease.

Another hour passed, before the gunslinger arrived at the Kalm, the chocobo slowing at a pull of the reins. He looked around, noting that the town was considerably less populated than it usually was. Normally there were many people walking through the town, walking from store to store and chatting along merrily with other townspeople. There was none of that this day. There were a few people who dared to walk around, sure, but it didn't even make a dent in how populated it usually was.

He neared Cloud's home, and slid off the chocobo, leading it behind the house to where he assumed a stable would be. True to his assumptions, a stable was waiting there and it was filled with six other golden chocobos. He pat the large bird on the head, earning a pleased squawk, before undoing the stable's latch, and placing it in with the other chocobos. He hoped Cloud didn't mind, well, not that it really mattered. He wouldn't be staying too long anyhow.

He walked back to the front of the house, before placing a polite knock on the door, waiting patiently for a response. A minute or two later, the door flung open, only to reveal the female warrior, Tifa, a kind smile on her lips.

"Oh Vincent, you're here. We tried to call you a few hours ago, but your PHS wasn't working or something, it wouldn't go through," she said, pausing for a moment as she motioned Vincent inside.

Vincent walked passed the femme fighter, and into the foyer of the house. He heard other voices, ones he knew only too well. Tifa walked past him and led him through the doorway to her right, which came to a large living room where every member of AVALANCHE had gathered.

"Who's here Tif---oh, hey Vince," said Cloud, a smile playing at his lips as his blue eyes narrowed on Vincent's sun deprived face.

"Hey there Vinnie-boy! We were just talking about you," said another voice, one that belonged to the ninja sitting at the other side of the room, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Joy," muttered Vincent, his voice filled with absolutely no emotion, as it usually was.

"Yeah, what tha hell? We tried ta call ya, vampy. Did you break yer PHS?" asked the big black man, arms crossed against his chest.

Before Vincent could say anything, Cid decided it was his turn to comment. "We didn't call you, so how'd you know we'd all be here? Eh? Speak up god dammit," he growled, before taking in one long drag of his half-finished cigarette.

Tifa snatched it out of the man's mouth, and Cid reached to grab it back, but Tifa's reflexes were too fast for the older man.

"What the hell, woman?" he growled, and Tifa shook her head.

"You know Shera told you to stop smoking," she retorted, and walked into the kitchen to throw the remainder of the cigarette into the sink, and drench it with water.

Cid muttered a long string of curses, none of which Tifa caught from her place in the kitchen, and as far as Cid was concerned, that was a good thing. The last thing he needed was to be beat to a pulp by her.

There was a momentary pause, and Vincent took it as the opportune moment for his explanation.

"I didn't know any of you would be here. I simply came here to tell you something, considering, as you've all have noticed, my PHS isn't quite working," he stated coolly, crossing his arms. "Why are you here?"

Cloud smiled faintly. "Probably the same reason you came to talk to us. Something incredibly strange is happening, something of which Yuffie first drew to our attention. She told us that something was wrong with the people, a few days ago, that they were changing. She mentioned how they got awful sick, as in to the point of near dying, and then suddenly, like magic, they were better. They may have been better physically, but they were different. They didn't act the same, and she mentioned how something about them didn't feel right.

"Now this doesn't sound like a big problem, but it's not happening in just one or two people, it's happening in masses of people. It's not even just happening in Wutai, once she brought it up, Tifa and I began to notice that the same thing is happening around here. The others have agreed with us when we called them via PHS," Cloud paused in his explanation, waiting for any questions of comments. When there were none, he continued.

"It's not just the people who seem to be going through something, it's the weather, which I'm sure you've all noticed. Cosmo Canyon and Wutai, both places where the temperatures are notably very warm, have dropped to this, this neutral temperature, the same as it is outside," he finished.

"Well, this sounds like a half-assed issue. You called us all here because a bunch of numb nuts are acting weird, and because the weather is different? Big damned deal," growled Cid, clearly annoyed, and the fact that he hadn't gotten to finish his cigarette wasn't making his attitude any better.

Yuffie shot him a death glare. "Shut up you old geezer, it's worst than it sounds. People aren't just acting a bit funky, it's like they're completely different people, and not in a good way. They're getting sick enough that they should be dead, but they're not. Then they're magically getting better, and as soon as they're better, they're, they're… I don't know, they're just creepy, and they look at you like they want to kill you or something. It's like they're possessed," she cried, her tone tainted with worry.

"Don't you be calling me an old geezer you good-for-nothing brat-" began Cid, raising himself from the couch.

"Both of you, stop your bickering. Honest to god, it's helping no one. Anyway, didn't Vincent come here to tell us something?" asked Tifa, her voice silencing the bickering pair.

Vincent nodded. "It may not seem that important, but this morning I woke up to this unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach. The planet is distraught, I can feel it down to the depths of my soul. Something is wrong, and it's making both Chaos and I very uneasy. There aren't many things that can make Chaos feel uneasy."

"Oh, well this is just fucking dandy. The vampire's now a Cetra and can talk to the earth," muttered Cid, intentionally being a smart-ass.

"I never said anything about being able to speak with the earth, nor about being a Cetra. Credits to Chaos, I know the general… state of the planet. The only reason I know that the planet is in a displeased state is because of Chaos," he said, his crimson eyes burning into Cid's face, causing the man to fidget uncomfortably.

"Stop stirring up trouble Cid, and just listen to us for two minutes, will you? Good, anyway, I was in my bar last night, cleaning up as I was about to close up, and Asher came in, erm, he's a friend. He'd just gotten over some sickness, so I'd heard, and he'd almost died, but miraculously had gotten better. Anyway, he came and sat at the bar. I thought nothing of it, and simply told him that I was about to close up. He didn't move, not at first. I turned around to look at him, and there was this look in his face, some sick hunger, and then he jumped over the bar, right at me. He'd pulled a butcher knife out from under his coat, and he tried to kill me. He tried to stab me. I had to knock him out to stop his attacks," she said, a look twisting on her face, revealing that she was clearly shaken.

"Where's he now?" asked Red, who had all but been silent through out the entire conversation.

Tifa looked over at the giant cat, slight grin on her face. "Strapped down to the bed in the guest room. It's strange, I've known Asher for a while, and I know he wouldn't have tried to hurt me, he just wasn't that way. That look in his face, it wasn't his. Something is terribly wrong with him."

"Well, maybe something is fucked up," muttered Cid, running his hand through his blond mane.

"Told you, you big moron," muttered Yuffie, stormy orbs fixating themselves upon his rugged face.

Cid glared at her. "I'll show you who's the god damned moron, c'mere you little-"

Yuffie snickered and leaned back against the lavender painted wall, feeling absolutely no worry that the blond man would harm her in any way.

"Moving on. I think that we should check this out, find out what's going on, and how we can stop it, if we can stop it," said Cloud, interrupting the bickering pair. Barret snorted.

"But we 'ave already done our damned duty. We kicked Sephiroth's ass, and saved the planet. Other people can worry 'bout this," he said, shooting the blond man a stubborn glare.

"You wouldn't feel the same if it were Marlene who was getting that sick, and then suddenly changing, now would you? Eh?" shot Yuffie, her stormy eyes travelling to the black man's face.

Barret looked over at her, his gaze softening slightly, realising that her words rang true. If Marlene was the one getting sick, he probably wouldn't be so careless on this matter.

"I guess," he muttered, then as he looked at the ninja, a question came to mind. "Why do ya care so much 'bout this anyway, brat?"

Yuffie's stormy eyes narrowed slightly, and she was annoyed that the answer wasn't obvious.

"The people of Wutai are getting sick, my people. I care about Wutai more than anything in the world, you should know that," she said, her voice filled with a sudden seriousness and maturity that made the group of them be taken aback with surprise.

"Alright, since everyone seems to agree that this is a matter that needs to be looked into, we should split up and go check out things. Tifa and I will go and find the Turks, see if they know anything, since they always seem to know something we don't-"

As soon as those words were spoken, there were a few mutters from various people of the group that went something along the lines of "-Those damned good-for-nothing flaming bastards-"

"-Cid and Barret, you two should go back to Rocket Town and fix up Cid's airship, since I assume we'll need it eventually, and as far as I'm told it's not exactly working," continued Cloud, pausing to see if there were any questions and comments.

"Hah! I knew that rust bucket would fall apart sooner or later," shrieked Yuffie, her amusement increasing as Cid's face turned a deep crimson shade.

"Oh, go to hell, brat," growled Cid, shooting her the death glare of all death glares. If looks could kill, Yuffie would have been dead at least a hundred times over.

"I'll see you there," she replied, topping off the comment with an arrogant wink.

"Anyway, Red, Yuffie, and Vincent, you three should go to Nibelheim and read through Hojo's old documents or something, since I imagine he knows something about this. Before any of you say anything," said Cloud, eyes fixated directly on Yuffie's face, "this is non negotiable."

Cid looked over at Vincent, mustering as much sympathy as he could into his gaze. "I feel so damned sorry for you Vince, really I do."

"Oh shove it, you old geezer," muttered Yuffie, clearly offended at the man's comment.

"Alright, we should all get going. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better," said the blond leader, running a hand through his spiked mane.

The group drained out of the room until the only people left where Cloud and Tifa, both seated together on the same lavender loveseat. The brunette looked over at her companion, slight curiosity staining her features. He looked down at her quizzically, cocking an eyebrow slightly.

"Do you really think it was a good idea to put Yuffie with Red and Vincent?" she asked, her voice quiet enough so that only Cloud would be able to hear, even if, though the chance was very slight, someone was listening in.

A faint grin came upon the swordsman's lips. "Sure it was. Red and Vincent will be able to deal with her fine. She can't fix an airship to save her soul, so going with Cid and Barret would have done nothing other than drive them insane, and she definitely wouldn't be a help in negotiating information out of the Turks, so yeah, I think it was best to group her with them," he explained, eyes never once leaving Tifa's face.

"I guess you're right," she said with a faint shrug. "Anyway, we'd better get going. Finding those god forsaken Turks isn't going to be easy."

"What are we going to do about Asher?" he asked, and Tifa shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I don't know, we can't let him lose. Maybe I can ask Abby to come in once a day, and feed him, or something," she said, and paused thoughtfully, seriously considering it.

"Isn't that that old bat from the store across the street? Are you sure she'd be able to handle Asher's insanity?" asked Cloud, and Tifa grinned maliciously.

"She'll be fine, and don't call her an old bat," she replied reassuringly.

Cloud smiled softly as Tifa pushed herself off the couch, and began her way out of their home. He followed suit, and walked out with her, the door closing behind him with a reassuring click.

The pair made their way to the back of the house where the chocobo stables lay. He caught a glimpse of Barret and Cid ridding in the distance, their chocobos racing at full speed. Then his pale blue orbs found more interesting targets, Vincent and Yuffie on their chocobos, both looking down at the giant cat who looked completely bewildered.

"So… Vinnie, who's he going to ride with, me or you?" asked Yuffie, breaking the temporary silence that had fallen between them.

Vincent was silent for a moment, considering the options. It really didn't matter whom the large beast rode with, not to him anyway.

"I suppose he can ride with me," he replied, his voice quiet and filled with what seemed to be an unlimited source of calmness.

For as long as Yuffie had known the gunslinger, the man was always calm and cool. He never let his emotions take control of him, no matter what. Hell, sometimes she wasn't even sure that he _had_ emotions. It was damned near amazing how he could shield his feelings so well, hide them beneath that well formed barrier he'd put up.

Sometimes the ninja just wanted to grab his shoulders, shake him, and simply scream at him to feel… anything. To let his emotions get to best of him, to act _human_. All humans had periods of time where their feelings got the best of them, overruled any rational thought, and they acted despite how foolish the action may have been. That never happened to Vincent. Vincent never overreacted, he was incapable of it, in Yuffie's point of view anyway.

She watched the larger man signal the beast up, and Red easily jumped onto the chocobos back, earning a wark of obvious discontent from the golden bird. Vincent gave the creature a quick reassuring pat on the head, before giving it a little kick. The bird took this as the signal to depart, and quickly sped off.

Yuffie followed his example and tapped her chocobo with the back of her heel, and it raced off after Sunshine. This chocobo had been graced with the name Goldie. Sunshine and Goldie, ah, the originality never seemed to cease.

Goldie quickly caught up with Sunshine, clearly faster because of the obvious fact that she had the considerably lighter load. Sunshine and Goldie managed to race at the same speed, so that they were running side to side.

Yuffie looked around boredly as the time slowly crept by, not that there was much to look at that wasn't blurred. It was almost like time was ticking by slowly just to spite her, and she was annoyed, very annoyed.

She boredly played with the chocobo's neck feathers, one hand holding loosely onto the reins. She took hold of a feather and gently pulled it, and when it didn't come out, she pulled harder. Again, it remained intact. She grinned faintly, and yanked, hard, pulling out the feather, earning a wark of severe displeasure from her chocobo. It bucked upwards, and she grasped onto the reins just in time to keep from falling onto the dry terrain.

"Holy hell, are you trying to kill me?!" she shrieked, earning a wark from the golden bird that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.

"Did you just laugh at me? Was that a laugh of mockery? Are you mocking me, you brainless bird? Keep this up and I'll be having fried chocobo drumsticks for dinner tonight, and don't you think for a minute that I wouldn't do it," she said, one hand releasing the reins long enough for her to poke the bird at the back of the head.

When the bird didn't wark in response, she continued. "I hear chocobo meat is good. I've never tried it myself, but hey, I'm always up to new experiences."

Vincent looked over at his other companion, eyebrow cocked as he realised she was talking to the uninterested golden bird. What she could possibly be talking about to a chocobo? Honest to god. That was proof that she never shut up.

Time passed, and the chocobos reached the ocean water, and didn't so much as hesitate before ploughing into it, easily slicing through the tiny waves that broke the ocean's surface. Yuffie's yammering came a cease when she began to feel sick to her stomach, nausea taking effect. Somehow, someway, she still managed to get seasick, despite the fact that she was riding a chocobo.

Nausea, in her opinion, was the worst sickness of them all, dear god, the worst! The chocobo came to a surprisingly difficult wave to break through, and the ride suddenly got rocky, well, rockier than it had been, and Yuffie was seconds away from tossing her cookies.

A hand clapped over her mouth, and she closed her eyes tightly, forcing her churning stomach to calm itself down. She wasn't about to puke up all over herself and the blasted chocobo if she could help it, she could restrain herself, she could. Dear lord, she hoped she could.

As soon as the chocobo stepped upon flat land, Yuffie's stomach stopped twisting and turning, and relief slowly returned to her, and she was grateful.

As the time continued to creep slowly by, she played with Goldie's feathers, brushing her fingers gently through them. She liked chocobo feathers, always had, she thought they were lovely, fascinating, for some reason or another. Of course, they weren't nearly as fascinating as materia. Of course not.

And speaking of materia… Yuffie pulled out a gleaming crimson materia, to be more specific, Vincent's mastered fire materia. She couldn't help but grin maliciously, for the gunslinger hadn't even noticed it, but that was to be expected, for she was Yuffie Kisaragi, princess of Wutai, master thief, and the greatest ninja on the planet. God, she was so, so good. It was overwhelming sometimes.

Finally, the chocobo's reached Nibelheim, and both Yuffie and Vincent pulled on the reins, forcing the giant birds to slow. Yuffie looked around the town, utterly bewildered as to why it looked to be completely abandoned. She'd never been a fan of Nibelheim, it was a creepy town that held even creepier memories, but this was full out weird.

"Holy materia, this place looks like a ghost town. What's up with this?" she asked, looking over to the pair on the chocobo.

Vincent glanced over at her, and gave her the response she knew so well. Silence.

She growled in irritation, the dreaded silence. Honest to god, she preferred it when he was being a smart-assed sarcastic jerk, because at least he _talked_.

She glanced over at Red as he jumped off the chocobo, deciding he was tired of riding on the giant bird, and walking seemed the more pleasurable option. He padded through the seemingly deserted town, looking around warily. Something didn't smell right, and he didn't like it. The smells of Nibelheim never particularly tickled his fancy, but this… this was merely horrid. It smelled faintly of sickness, and poison, and darkness. It smelled of evil.

Yuffie and Vincent followed the giant beast's example, and slid off their chocobos, walking ahead of the giant birds and leading them by the reins. The ninja looked over at Red, stormy orbs watching him curiously.

"Whatcha smell, Red?" she asked, and he looked over at her with his single golden eye. That single golden eye was filled with such intelligence and wisdom, that Yuffie couldn't help but partially admire the fiery beast, though she'd never admit it.

Nanaki flicked his burning tail. "Nothing pleasant, to say the least. But I don't sense any danger," he replied.

The three made their way over to the mansion, Yuffie hesitating slightly before entering the gates. However creepy the town of Nibelheim itself had been, it didn't even put a dent in how utterly disturbing this mansion was. It was so dark, always seemed to be bathing in the shadows. It didn't matter how bright the sun may have been that day, it was always wrapped in shadows. It was unnerving to her.

That mansion, it was a place of nightmares, where so many were created and moulded. She knew that, she also knew that Vincent had experienced some of these nightmares first hand. He had been shot, and then saved from death only to be experimented on. The terrifying experiments consisted of giving Vincent four demons that resided in the darkest corners of his mind, and took form and shape when he felt extreme emotions, most commonly anger. He also got, what Yuffie thought to be, a nifty golden claw, as well as his impressive crimson eyes. After the experiments, he had the luck to have been shoved in a dusty old coffin that barely fit him, and he chose to sleep there as his punishment for all his sins. What a way to punish oneself.

Yuffie felt a twinge of pity for the man. Her and Vincent may not have been best buddies, but she still felt for him. Being stuck in a coffin for thirty years is no one's idea of a good time… except some twisted sicko, but other than that.

The ninja believed that Vincent didn't deserve all what had happened to him, all the suffering he'd gone through, all the pain. He may have been a cranky, antisocial, smart ass, but he was her friend, in a way, and he didn't deserve it. Vincent was a good guy, a little too angsty for her taste, but underneath all that sadness, sorrow, and perhaps even anger, he had a heart, he had emotions just like everyone else, even though he denied it.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a crack of thunder snap through the sky. She gazed upwards, frowning slightly as she noticed the once neutral sky, darkening into a forbidding state.

_Great, just great. Rain, and thunder, and lighting. Just what I wanted. I get to be in that freaky-deaky mansion with only Mr. Vampiro himself, and a giant cat for protection. Not like I need protection, I am the great ninja Yuffie! But still…_

She walked around the mansion to the chocobo stable, trailing far behind her two other companions. The ninja took up a light jog, and caught up to them, slowing back down to a walk as the gap came to a close. They placed the two gold chocobos in the ragged old stable, which Yuffie assumed was barely holding up. It looked like if she gave it a little knock, it would come crashing down atop the golden bird's heads. Eh well, what can you do?

_Sucks to be them_.

They returned back to the front, and entered the mansion, Yuffie being the most hesitant to pass through the dirtied doorway. She hated the mansion, oh yes she did. Horrible place, absolutely horrible. Why'd they have to send her there? Why, oh why?

The floorboards creaked as the trio moved through the foyer towards the stairs, the ninja looking around warily, her muscles knotted five times over. The room had a dusty smell to it, an old smell. You could tell just by the smell that no one had actually lived in this house for a long time, aside from Vincent that is, not that Vincent generally counted, since all he did was sleep in that god forsaken coffin anyway.

Vincent led them up the stairs, and into the bedroom, looking around the cobweb filled room briefly, before leading them down those rickety, rusted stairs. With their three weights combined, the creaking was especially loud, crying to them that any more weight, it would simply collapse, and they would all come tumbling down.

They reached the bottom in one piece, and made their way down the extremely dark hall. There was no light, none aside from the flame a lit at the end of Nanaki's crimson tail. It was that single flame that stopped the room from being completely pitch black, and leaving them to fumble around and hope to god that they didn't run into anything dangerous before finding the correct room.

Vincent hit the light switch, and bright light came flooding into the room, taking any space it could get its greedy little hands on. The darkness was forced into corners, and other areas the light couldn't seem to access, and it would await there until the light source was cut off. Such a long time from then.

Yuffie observed with boundless curiosity, staring at the shelves which were overflowing with worn and torn books, binders, notepads, more books, various pieces of paper, and did I mention books? The desk was overflowing with loose sheets, as were the drawers, and heck, even the ground was covered in them.

"Uh, yeah, where do we start?" she asked, rubbing the back of her neck as she looked to the dark gunslinger with curiosity.

"This will take some time, I suppose we should skim through everything, find anything that's even remotely related to what's going on," he said, running his human hand through his ebon mane.

"We should perhaps start a pile of books we've been through," stated Nanaki, reasonably.

Vincent nodded his head, then looked over to the far corner of the room, "We'll put them all there."

They all nodded their heads in unison, and there was a slight hesitation before the three of them began their work. Yuffie pulled out a book, cover so worn and torn that any roughness once oh ever would tear it off. It was hanging on by its last string, literally.

She let herself drop to the floor, and she began boredly flipping through the pages. It wasn't long before she discovered that the book dealt with economy, and tossed it to the corner. Why he had a book about economy in his research room, was beyond her, but who was she to nitpick?

Hours passed, and evening was closing in, but despite how many books she skimmed through, there always seemed to be a hundred more waiting for her. The job seemed impossible, there was so much information, and none of it seemed to be useful at the given time.

It was storming, rain beating against the dark mansion, thunder booming mercilessly, lightning cracking against the sky. The ninja was nearly at her wits end, when she pulled out a thick novel that took her aback.

"What the hell? '_Gone With the Wind_'. What does 'Gone With the Wind' have _anything_ to do with _anything_ he could have possibly been doing here?" she said, gripping onto the book with severe annoyance.

Vincent and Red both twisted around to look at the distraught 17-year-old, who looked like she was going to take her Conformer and slice and dice it until the pieces were barely recognizable.

"Yuffie, we've been at this since early afternoon, you're overtired, and stressed out. Put the book on the ground, and take a nap in the corner, or something of that matter. Oh, and before you say anything, yes you have to sleep in this room. If you're upstairs, we won't be around, and you'll be defenceless against anything that dared come into this mansion," said Red, calm and reason tainting his voice.

Yuffie nodded, and found that he was right, she was tired. Too tired to bother being stubborn and arguing just to argue, which, if you think about it, must have been extremely tired, to the point of being minutes away from passing out.

She let the book fall to the floor, and she laid down onto the cold ground, using her arms as a pillow for her head. Within seconds, she was out. Red watched her for a few moments, almost surprised that she had given in so easily.

He couldn't help but feel pity for the young woman, only a year since they had defeated Sephiroth, and they were already back to saving the planet. She was just a teenager, and from what he'd gathered, she'd been forced to grow up at a young age, never really experiencing a true childhood.

True, she still held the immaturity of a teenager, in some ways. The obnoxiousness, the arrogance, and the playfulness. Despite all that, there were times where there was a hardness on her face, a type of seriousness that he had never seen in a teenager before, only on older adults. She was a teenager in many ways, but in other ways, she was very grown up, though many didn't see that, because she seemed to hide it all under a mask, but then again, who didn't hide things under a mask?

He looked over at Vincent, who had restarted searching through one of the older notebooks. Vincent felt Red's gaze on him, and turned his head to look at him, waiting patiently for Red to say what he wanted.

"We should probably get some rest also, it's getting late, and there's no telling when we'll be on the move again," he said reasonably, as always.

Vincent sighed, not wanting to stop his search quite yet, but he knew that Red was right, that he would need rest, sooner or later, and the opportunity for him to do so wouldn't always be available. He placed the book on the ground, as well as Death Penalty, and walked over to Yuffie. He stepped over the ninja, Red watching him with his curious amber eyes, as he shut and locked the metal door with a click, insuring their safety.

He then flicked off the light, leaving Red's tail to be the only source of light, before he returned to the bookcase he had previously been at, next to the other metal door, and he took a seat. With that, he leaned against the bookcase, books roughly poking at his back, though he paid them little attention, and he closed his crimson eyes.

Red followed his lead, laid his head down onto his fiery red paws, and closed his amber orbs, letting sleep overtake him nearly as quickly as it had overtaken Yuffie. The three companions didn't dream that night, or at least, any dreams that they could remember, and maybe, it was better that way, for it seemed that in that kind of mansion, the only thing that one could dream was nightmares.

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You know you want to review, heh. Please, tell me what you think. I'll love you forever? ;)


	3. Rain and Hormones

Disclaimer – Same as before.

A considerably shorter chapter than the previous. Meh, what can you do. Hope ya'll like it and whatnot, heh. This is my first time trying to write Cloud and Tifa, I hope they're remotely in character. Anyhow, on with the story.

Rain by Breaking Benjamin  
Rain, rain go away come again another day  
All the world is waiting for the sun  
To lie here under you is all that I could ever do  
To lie here under you is all

Chapter 2 – Rain and Hormones ---------------------

"Wow, fucking rain," shouted Cid, as the raindrops hit his airship, or rather, his _baby_

"I never liked tha' rain. A pain in the ass if ya ask me," said Barret, his words accompanied with an annoyed snort.

"A-fucking-men," replied Cid, grabbing a hold of the wrench from his toolkit, and making his way back into his airship.

"Cid, I thought asked you to tone down the language," shouted a voice from the house.

Cid paused, inches away from actually being inside his airship, and he spun around, only to see Shera, head poking out of their house's window, and he snorted.

"And I thought I asked you to make us some god damned tea," he retorted, crossing his arms arrogantly.

Shera rolled her eyes, "I made your god damned tea, if you want it, come get it, and for the last time, tone down the swearing. Honestly."

He could see that she was annoyed, and he sighed, running a hand through his blond hair, periwinkle eyes softening as he watched her. She'd changed so much over the passed year, she'd gone from the meek little thing that had pretty well done his biding, to the considerably stronger woman he had asked to marry him. She had come to realise that he was all bark, and no bite. Despite what he said, he preferred the change. Well, usually.

"Well, uh, sorry Shera, but would you close that damned window? Last thing we need is you catching the flu in your condition. You already have the sniffles, or whatever the hell it was," he said, and the annoyance fell from Shera's face, and was replaced by a content smile.

"Yeah, ok, but you and Barret come in and drink your tea before it gets cold," she said, and she closed the window with a slam.

He tossed his wrench uncaringly into the airship, and looked behind him to see the black man standing there, a devious grin painted on his lips. Just at that moment, Barret made a noise that sounded like a whip cracking, and hand movement to accompany it. Cid flushed at least three different colours before he settled for a deep crimson.

"Fuck you," was all he said, and Barret's grin widened.

The pair walked into Cid's house, and there was Cid's fiancé, Shera, sitting at the table, sipping tea, and reading a magazine. She looked over at Cid, a calm smile at her lips, and Cid was almost glowing with adoration for the woman.

They sat at the table, and Barret took a big gulp of his tea, which he immediately regretted, because the tea was extremely hot, and burned everything that it touched.

As soon as the tea went down his throat, there was a long string of curses, that made Cid grin with pride. Shera, on the other hand, was shaking her head with shame, though she couldn't keep the smile of amusement from her lips.

"Serves you right numbskull," he said, taking as much amusement into this as possible, and Barret sent him a venomous glare.

Shera gave a little cough, and Cid looked at her, suddenly feeling a bit of worry. What if what was happening to those people, was happening to Shera. No, he wouldn't let it happen, he wouldn't let things get that bad. Besides, she was getting better, and had had the cold weeks before it had started happening. Good, it wasn't it, it couldn't be it.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, and Shera nodded her head at him.

"Actually, I think I'm getting over it. That medicated tea worked wonders for my sore throat, but the nausea is still there, so is the insomnia, but I suppose that's to be expected," she said, instinctively rubbing her stomach.

"How far are y'along?" asked Barret, carefully stirring his honey flavoured tea.

"Nearly four months," she said, glowing with pride, and she looked over at Cid affectionately.

"How you fell in love wit' _him_, I don' know," he said, leaning back in his chair, looking over at a the still crimson Cid.

Shera didn't respond, just placed her slender hand over Cid's tense one, and as soon as her fingers made contact with him, all the anger and annoyance seemed to float away. The wheels in Barret's head began to turn, and he came to realise that maybe Shera was good for him after all. Who'd have known.

"Where're yer cigarettes, or as tha brat would call 'em, cancer sticks," he asked, making another attempt to sip the sweet tea, which had significantly cooled from his first attempt.

"Shera's making me quit. Bad for the kid," he said, his words accompanied with a sigh of longing, and Shera grinned, squeezing his hand with reassurance.

"There's still a bit of day left, we'd better get back ta workin'," said Barret, standing up in such a sudden movement that the chair was almost flung back onto the floor.

"When are you boys going to come back in?" she asked as she began to stand up, preparing to clear off the table.

"About an hour, when it's dark, we have to get this finished, there's no telling when it'll be needed. Cloud'll probably fuck something up, and we'll have to go to his rescue. Damned spiky-headed-twerp," muttered Cid, standing up as well.

Shera nodded her head, and made her way over to the ivory sink. Cid paused to watch her, for a moment or so, then he excited out of the house, alongside Barret.

The rain was pouring downward, and the breeze was cool as it whipped against his skin. Lightning lit up the sky with a crack, and to Cid, it seemed like a bad omen. It was as if it were saying that things were bound to get worst, and if that were true, they had to hurry.

---------------------

They had been searching the seemingly deserted Junon for hours, and Tifa was growing more and more irritated by the moment. She was already drenched, the rain was pouring, the darkness was moments away, and the wind was damn near freezing. Not to mention that her white shirt was see through when wet, which drew quite the audience from the few people she passed. In all honestly, she doubted things could get worst.

Cloud glanced over at her, and being a guy, immediately noticed that her shirt was see through. He cocked an eyebrow, and looked to her face, staring until she looked over at him. For a second or so, their eyes were caught in a deadlock, and neither spoke.

"What?" asked Tifa, cocking an eyebrow in return.

"Your shirt it's, uh, see through. Maybe we should get you a coat, or something," he said, and she broke their deadlocked gaze.

"Oh geeze, why would I want to do that, I love it when people gawk at me on the street, heck, wouldn't you?" she replied, sarcastically.

"Who's gawking at you?" he asked, his tone suddenly defensive, and she shook her head.

"Honestly, sometimes you're so oblivious," she said, though it was obvious she was amused.

As of that moment, Cloud began paying attention to the people that passed them, sending anyone suspicious that peaked at his companion a death glare, and he made sure Tifa stayed close to him. Not that she couldn't defend herself, but it made him feel better.

"Are the Turks even here? I can see this as being one big goose chase, and they probably know about as much as we do anyway, which would basically make them useless. Watch them want to team up with us, or something," muttered Tifa, and Cloud glanced over at her, her long brown locks drenched to the core.

"Hmm, but then again, they could know something, and maybe having them on our team could benefit us. So, lets mosey, maybe someone in that bar knows," he said, signalling to the building, with the neon green letters aglow that read 'Sweet Sally's Bar.'

"Great," muttered Tifa, glancing down at her see through shirt, and Cloud paused.

"Unless you want to get a coat, or whatever, first," he said with a half-smile.

"No, that's ok, I'll be humiliated either way, let's just get this done so we can check into the Inn, and we can go to bed. God, I'm tired," she said, and he nodded his head, the half-smile never wavering.

The pair made their way into the bar, and found it to be only half full, which was somewhat of a surprise since it was a Friday, aka, the day all the alcoholics unite to blow their hard earned pay checks on getting wasted.

It took a few moments, but most of the men noticed Tifa's presence, or rather, that she was well endowed and that her shirt was see through. Tifa rolled her russet eyes once more. _Men_.

"Hey, guys, pay her a little respect, she just got out of the rain, and here you are, gawking at her like she's a three headed chicken. There's nothing more to see, now return to your drinks, or be out with you," shot a woman from the bar, her voice demanding a great deal of respect, and all the men sheepishly averted their gazes.

Tifa and Cloud looked to her in unison, and there was a thin woman, mid thirties, long fiery red hair pulled up into a high ponytail, some strands escaping into her fair face. Her eyes were a startling shade emerald, bright and stood out of her face. She was wasn't exactly pretty, her eyebrows were over plucked and her features were sharp, but she had a lovely smile that flaunted all of her pearly white teeth.

She reached under the bar, grabbing something that neither Cloud nor Tifa could quite see, and she walked around towards them, and in her hands were two jade coloured towels, folded nicely, and waiting to be used. They each took a towel, and draped it over their shoulder, grateful to finally have something to dry themselves with.

"Thank you Miss… ?" said Cloud, waiting for a response, and the woman's smile deepened.

"The name's Sally Murphy, but please call me Sally. Miss Murphy makes me sound so old," she said, tucking stray hair that had fallen in her face, behind her ears.

"Ok, well, thank you Sally, can we ask you-" Cloud was cut off before he could finish his sentence.

"Ask me anything you want, just come and sit at the bar, I have customers to serve, can't very well stand here chattin'," she said, and made her way back to the bar, cleaning the marbled black and white surface, lined with emerald green, with a rag.

Everything in the bar seemed to be made of wood, even the benches, though they were padded with emerald covers. There were black and white pictures on the wall of various parts of the wilderness. Trees, deer, birds, and other things of that matter. It was quite a cozy bar, if Tifa said so herself, though she felt a sudden longing to be at 'Eternal Heaven,' her own bar.

They both took seats on the stools in front of the bar, Tifa using the towel to dry out her long, dark hair. Sally left the rag be, and walked over to them, putting her arms on the bar, and leaning forward, looking solely at Cloud.

"Now, what is that you wanted to ask me?" she asked, emerald eyes searching his face curiously, mischievous grin teasing her lips flirtatiously.

Tifa took note of the flirtatiousness that was pretty well oozing off her, and she tried to contain the annoyance that whipped across her insides viciously. An unexpected wave of jealousy wove around her, and she looked down at her lap for a second or so, attempting to disband the persistent emotion, though the attempt was all but futile.

Cloud, as per usual, was oblivious to it, or chose to ignore it.

"Have the Turks been around here recently?" he asked, tapping his fingers on the bar with a strange rhythm that he couldn't seem to identify.

"Yup, in fact, I saw them early yesterday afternoon. They come in here quite often, though they weren't here today, though that was expected. They said they were leaving," she said, her eyes filled with a deviousness that made Tifa suddenly rather uneasy.

"Did they say where they were going?" he asked, and her grin widened.

"Something along the lines of finding someone, I believe they said they were going to find AVALANCHE for some reason or another. Hmm, you're Cloud Strife, aren't you? Part of that band of rebels?" she asked, twirling a lock of stray hair around her bony finger.

He nodded his head. "Did they say where they were going to find us?"

"Afraid not, or if they did, I didn't catch it," she said, pausing for a moment, before she spoke once more. "It's rather stormy outside, how 'bout you two stay here, I have an extra room, free of charge? That is, if you two don't mind sharing, or one of you could stay with me. Not that you particularly have much of a choice, 'cause the Inn is closed down. Renovations."

Cloud looked to Tifa, whose cheeks were on fire. He put his hand on hers, which was gripping her bare knee, the skin around it nearly white, and Tifa looked at him, her eyes locking with his in surprise.

"If it isn't too much trouble, we could share a room. We wouldn't bother you if the Inn was open, but it seems it isn't," he said, and Sally nodded her head, and her flirting dwindled.

She smiled calmly, though an edge of flirtatiousness remained, and she opened the door behind from where she stood, motioning for them to follow her. The pair followed her, Cloud's hand loosely gripping Tifa's wrist. Their still drenched shoes squeaked against the hardwood floor as they entered the dimly lit hallway.

The hallway was bare, nothing but wood walls, and wood floors, and three doors, as well as a window at the end of the bleak hall. Sally opened the first door to their right, and flicked the switch. She let the pair walk passed her, and Cloud observed the room.

The room was just like the rest of the bar, wood, wood, and more wood. There was a plain dresser, a bed against the wall, opposite to where the door was, and a small window above it. There was an ivory lamp on the nightstand, and an alarm clock on the other. To say the least, he doubted it could have been any plainer.

"Both of your clothes are wet, take them off, and leave both them and the towels outside your door. I'll clean and dry them by morning," she said with a faint smile, and they both nodded in unison.

She closed the door, and there they were, in a very interesting situation.

"Well, I suppose we should get to bed," she said, grinning at him uneasily.

Cloud nodded his head, and he turned away slightly, leaving her to her privacy, before removing his armour, putting Ultima Weapon next to the dresser, and stripping of his shirt. Really, he had no reason for this to be awkward, they were friends, they were attracted to each other, what was the big deal? He was still unsure about his emotions for her, that was why it was awkward, and she was stripping down into her underwear, so was he, oh god, it's no big deal.

Heck, he'd seen her in a bikini, there was no difference… right? Holy hell, he knew that he was making a big deal out of nothing, so why couldn't he stop the nervous feeling in his stomach? Damn it, he felt like a kid on his first day of school. God, he needed to stop obsessing.

He took off his belt, pants, shoes, socks, and he was standing there in his obsidian boxers. He turned around, and felt a twinge of surprise, though he shouldn't have, to see Tifa standing there in periwinkle underwear.

"For God's sake, I've returned to being a hormonal teenager once again," he muttered, and Tifa looked over at him curiously.

"What'd you say?" she asked him, and he shook his head.

"Nothing important," he replied quickly, quickly enough to grab Tifa's attention, though she didn't dare persist on the matter.

He picked up his clothes, and handed them to Tifa, who put them outside the door, and closed it once more. She flicked off the lights, before making her way to the bed across the slightly cool room.

He slid under the covers at the opposite side of the bed, ignoring that annoying feeling of desire that had begun to make itself known. Awkward, very awkward. Maybe she didn't notice. Damn, he hopped so.

In all honesty, when Cloud had paired them together, he didn't even consider the fact that something like this would happen. Why was life so complicated?

Both of them decided to ignore the awkwardness, the tension, and the strange emotions that they had already been feeling previously, but had decided to intensify at that moment, and go to sleep. Sleep was a sanctuary from everything, including unwanted desire, and strange, uncontrollable emotions.

At the break of dawn, Tifa found herself waking up. She didn't open her eyes, just listened. She listened to Cloud's breathing, and to her own uneven heartbeat as it pounded in her chest. The room was dead silent, or at least, until she heard the door's hinges creek. She didn't move, she didn't even breath. She couldn't describe it, but she was suddenly very uneasy, the hairs on the back of her neck were on end, and she knew that something was very wrong.

She heard someone creep in, their footsteps nearly silent against the wooden floorboards. Tifa's muscles knotted, and she slowly twisted around to her back, her eyes opened just enough to see, though it was blurry. She caught sight of fiery red hair, and a butcher knife gleaming in the early morning sunlight that crept through the window.

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As per usual, I know that you'd love to tell me what you think, and thanks much to all who reviewed before :) :)


	4. The True Meaning of Cold

Disclaimer – See prologue sigh

I haven't updated for a little while. My bad. I've been so busy lately, you know, Christmas, more projects than I can even begin to count, and other family and friend things that I know you don't want me to get into. Power to all of those who still bother to read this. So without further ado, here's Chapter 3.

Veins of Glass – Lacuna Coil  
And the ghosts I keep inside myself  
How do they see me?  
While again I'm drowning  
With my soul  
Will you save me?

Chapter 3 – The True Meaning of Cold  
---------------------

Yuffie woke up to the sound of a loud bang. She groaned, and raised her head, her stormy eyes still blurry with sleep. Red looked over at her, tilting his head slightly, before opening the incredibly large hard cover book with his damp, jet black nose.

"What was that?" she muttered, and Red simply blinked at her, not responding for a few moments.

"I apologize, I accidentally knocked down this book from one of the higher shelves, and clearly it woke you up," he said, and looked back down to the huge mother of a book.

"Well, thanks a lot for waking me up, frigin cat," she growled sarcastically, before forcing herself onto her knees, and she rubbed her aching neck.

"Dear materia, my neck and back hurt like hell, and it feels like someone was using my head for a bongo drum," she muttered, and Vincent glanced over at her.

"I imagine that's what happens when you sleep on a cement floor," he retorted, and Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"Thanks for the observation Mr. Sunshine, wouldn't have figured that out on my own," she snapped, words oozing of even more sarcasm, and Vincent shook his head, before returning to what he was reading.

Yuffie muttered something along the lines of "Damned bloodsucking vampire--can't be pleasant for one instant--always raining on my parade."

As per usual, Vincent ignored it, though Yuffie was almost certain that he heard her, and she growled with annoyance, not getting a reaction from him. It was no fun when they didn't react to the clearly offensive words she uttered.

She returned to searching through the books, though she was very reluctant about doing it, and she prayed that they'd find something they needed, or something useful, then they could leave this god forsaken place, and that would be the end of her being grouped with the big cat, and the happiest man on the planet (oh, feel the sarcasm).

She nailed another book across the room, missing Red head by half an inch, and he sent her a death glare, though her response was to laugh her ass off. Red gave a faint growl, before returning to what he was doing. Vincent hadn't even acknowledged that it had happened, though he had certainly heard the commotion.

The ninja pulled out another thick book from the top shelf, which caused a smaller, but even thicker book to come tumbling down and hit her square on the head. There was a wild string of curses, and she had to use every inch of willpower she had not to kick it across the room.

"Stupid thing," she snapped, and sat down, dropping the other book, and picking up the one that had fallen on her head.

The covers were a rich shade of amethyst, and they were taped to the book, the old scotch tape being the only thing that was holding it all together. She flipped open the first page, uncaring that the old scotch tape was beginning to rip under the abrupt movements.

On the first page was a name, Hojo, as well as various childish doodles surrounding it. She flipped the page. No wonder it was so old, the first entry was on his seventh birthday. She flipped to half the book, and it was well into his scientific years. She began to skim his entries with interest, briefly wondering why she was finding this so interesting. She mentally wondered if Vincent would be in there, and if he was, was there any good blackmail material?

She saw a familiar name, one that triggered a sudden anger in her. Lucrecia. Stupid wench, it was her fault Vincent was the way he was. Maybe he was actually happy at some point, well, not anymore. Honestly, she didn't understand why Vincent didn't hate her, heck, she would have hated her. Who could love someone like that?

……Lucrecia came with me to the little party. She was beautiful, with her hair done up stunningly, and her dress, ah, her dress. Fantastic. She'll be perfect for my plans, just astounding. It'll be all in the best interest for Science. Everything for Science, but I mustn't rush the process, oh no, everything must be just right, or it might go south. That's the last thing anyone needs.

Anyhow, on the topic of the party, I should probably mention that I met someone rather interesting. Rather insane, but rather interesting to say the least. I think it was Hector, no, Victor Morales. He's a scientist, somewhat, but he's insane. He was rambling about his plans about Lifestream, and the changes that could happen with his plan. Changing the Lifestream could change the planet, or some mumbo jumbo like that. If he honestly believes there's a way to change the Lifestream to suit his purposes, to be in control of everything, well, he's a complete idiot. Finding the Promised Lands is one thing, but controlling the Lifestream, and everything connected to it, well, he really is insane……

Yuffie's eyes nearly fell out of her skull. What luck, what frigin luck. She was glad that Lucrecia's name caught her interest, amen to that, though it hardly changed the fact that the woman was a stupid, good for nothing wench. And she was probably ugly.

"Vincent?" she asked, glancing over at the man, ebon hair tumbling into his porcelain coloured face.

He looked over at her, "Yes?"

"Who was Victor Morales?" she asked, and he was silent for a moment.

"I'm not sure, why do you ask?" he asked, and she grinned at him, only bewildering both him and Red, who had looked over at her.

"Well, it seems your old friend Hojo knew him, called him insane--oh, the irony--and said he wanted to control Lifestream or something like that. He said that the guy told him that he had plans to change the Lifestream to suit him, and that changing the Lifestream would do a lot of things, or whatever. You know it's bad when Hojo calls him insane," she explained, shaking the book in her hand.

Vincent let his book fall to the ground, and he walked over to Yuffie, taking to book in his claw, and reading the page. She noticed his jaw clench, and she knew that he had seen Lucrecia's name. She rolled her eyes, figures, after all this time he still had the hots for the dead nut job.

"Do you think that's what we're looking for?" asked Red, and Vincent nodded his head softly, not even bothering to look at the large, fiery beast.

"Yes, I think it is. We've been through nearly everything here, and this is the only piece of information that we've found that seems to be remotely like what's happening, though it still doesn't explain what's happening with the people," he stated, and glanced at both their faces.

"Oh god, it's the only shot we have, and sitting in this place hour after hour is hell," she said, her voice taking on a whine that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

"I suppose, we'd better get going. We'll use your PHS on the way back to the Kalm," said Vincent, handing the journal back to Yuffie, who handed him her PHS, which miraculously, was all in once piece, and ready to use. Figure that.

The trio made their way back to the mansion's lobby, Yuffie tucking the journal into her back pocket of her slightly oversized beige shorts. She gripped onto her conformer, feeling the coolness invade the warmth of her hand, and she waited for Vincent to open the front door.

He opened the door, but they were all taken by surprise. It was snowing, and hard, in fact, it was nearly a damned blizzard. Wind raged into the house, and ran against Yuffie, they were like pins and needles burrowing themselves into her tanned flesh.

"Holy mother of all materia, why's it snowing? It's not winter yet. I hate the damned cold. I hate it, I hate it," she said, stepping back from the door.

"Hmm," was Vincent's reply, and he flipped open Yuffie's PHS.

He held it up to his ear, and waited, only to find that there was no connection. He held it out in front of him, and there, in big red letters read, 'No Signal.'

"What? What's going on?" she asked, and Vincent glanced over at her.

"There's no signal, the clouds are too thick, and there's too much snow," he replied, flipping it closed, and placing it gently in his obsidian pocket.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, rubbing her goose bump filled arms violently, trying to warm herself up.

She was never one for winter, sure she didn't mine the snow and all, but no, no, the cold just didn't work for her. She was a summer girl, a girl who grew up in Wutai, where it was always hot. Yes, the heat always worked well for her, not the cold, never the cold.

"We have no choice we have to go through this. We don't have much time left, and from what I've gathered the planet is getting worst as time passes. We can't waste time because of snow," stated Red, and Vincent nodded softly in agreement.

"Easy for you both to say, Red's got a fur coat, and his tail is on fire, and Vincent is immune to the elements, and dressed from the neck, down," she growled, rubbing the back of her neck.

"You should have been more prepared, and not have worn shorts and a sleeveless top," stated Vincent.

"Yeah, right, thanks for the information, but I didn't expect it to be snowing at the end of summer. Honestly, I hope that the planet stops snowing, and becomes extremely hot, to the point where you could cook an egg on the pavement, and we'll see who's laughing then," she snapped, eyes filled with venom.

"Sounds good, and until then, it won't be me who's uncomfortable," muttered Vincent, and if Yuffie didn't know any better, she'd have thought he was taking some sort of sick pleasure out of this.

"Whatever. You should know, I really dislike you right now," she snapped, knowing how childish it was of her, but doing it anyway, and had Vincent had it in him, he would have rolled his eyes.

"Big loss," he retorted sarcastically, and Yuffie was taken but surprise, feeling suddenly very hurt.

She hadn't really meant it when she said that she disliked him, but it was clear that he really did dislike her. Pain scratched at her, jolting up her spine, winding around her body. It hurt to hear him say the words, someone that she had come to like, despite how mean she was to him, now and then, well, usually.

They excited the house, Yuffie trailing behind them, and not bothering to close the gap. The chocobos were in the stable, warking uneasily as they realised something was wrong. They shook their feathers, letting the excess snow that had managed to get into them, fall to the snow filled ground silently.

They mounted their chocobos, and were on their way. The snow was already deep, deep enough to slow down the chocobos, and the snow was becoming worst, it was almost blinding. The cold caused Yuffie to shiver like a fiend, and once in a while, she would resort to using her cure materia on herself, despite how she wasn't hurt, just to get that warm feeling that she bathed in when used.

She could feel her energy draining, and figured it was best to keep it for emergencies. The ninja glanced around her, and could barely see her companions riding beside her. Aside from their faint images, all she could see was white, and occasionally some grey that peaked through the curtain of forbidding falling snow.

Vincent glanced over at her, noting that she hadn't spoken once since he had spoke, and he wondered why. Maybe his sarcastic retort had been too harsh, maybe. He shook his head, he'd fix it later, but after this matter was resolved. At that moment, it seemed that getting out of the snow storm was more important than patching up a little bump in their half-assed friendship. It probably wouldn't be good if Red or Yuffie got hypothermia.

He could feel his chocobo's uneasiness increase, and so did the confusion. If they were lost, he would be rather annoyed. That's just what they needed, to get lost in a snowstorm with an angry ninja, who'd probably freeze to death, and a giant cat, who, again, would probably freeze to death. Not that he was pessimistic or anything.

Both chocobos began to wark insanely, something was spooking them, and Vincent couldn't help but mentally curse. Another thing they needed, creatures out to get them. Again, very lovely. Honestly, was there anyone who had worst luck than him?

The wind picked up intensely, and both birds came to especially deep snow pile, they both bucked upward repeatedly, making it impossible for their masters to stay on, and the trio were all thrown off.

Red landed in the snow, and watched as the two birds ran like bats out of hell, disappearing from view. He growled, and raised himself onto his feet, ignoring the cold sensation that picked at his paws. He looked around for quite some time, taking in the layout, hoping for signs of any form of life.

He sat there for at least a good five minutes, that is, until he caught sight of something in the snow. Flesh, beige and jade clothes, and raven hair. It was the ninja, lying on her stomach, face pressed into the glittering perfection of the snow.

He forced his way through the snow, and rolled Yuffie onto her back. She was shivering uncontrollably, body covered in snow, and lips were pale. He was completely surprised at how quickly the cold had affected her, but then again, it was probably much colder than it was to him, and she was more susceptible to it.

She opened her stormy eyes drowsily, and forced herself onto her butt. She sat, slouched over, and shivering so hard that it looked like she was going to pass out. He twisted his flamed tail towards her, though it made little difference in contrast to the cold that collided against her.

"Yuffie, you have to stand up," he said, though it was more a demand.

She tried to do as he said, and attempted to push herself upward, but she fell back down almost immediately, sitting back onto the ground, which was kissed with glittering snow. She tried again, and again, but never made any progress. She was shivering too hard, she was too cold, and despite how strong she was, she was no match against the winter cold that was weaving viciously around them.

"I can't do it, I can't stand up," she replied, hair falling into face.

"You have to Yuffie, this isn't an option. You have to, or you will almost surely die. You can't live just sitting in the snow, your temperature is already dropped at an extreme rate, you can't let it drop any further," he said, and rubbed against her, attempting to make her get up.

"I've tried! I can't get up," she shrieked, then an idea came to her.

"C-Cure," she shouted, and she was surrounded by a green glow, and a slight warmth.

Unfortunately, the warmth did little this time. The warmth was immediately stolen by the cool snow a split second after it had been cast. It was useless, all it did was waste energy.

She wouldn't give up, she couldn't. She was too young to die. She tried to get up, using all her energy, and she did stand, sort of, but only for a second or so, for her frozen legs gave in, and she was on the ground once more.

"Red, I can't die here, I can't," she whispered, and the beast looked at her, his eyes filled with such worry, and she was scared.

She was terrified that she would die. Her corpse would be frozen, and the snow would bury her, creating a frozen, form-fitting casket for her lifeless shell. Her eyes would be open, frozen in place, and glazed over with eyes, her tears frozen solid. She was going to die here, in this snowy terrain of hell.

"Vincent!" he shouted, it had been the first time she had ever heard him shout, ever raise her voice, and she had to admit, it sounded very strange. Had she not been terrified for her life, she might have laughed.

A figure came into full view, and she realised it then, it was Vincent. The man looked down at her, not even hesitating, before picking her up, bridal style. He watched her, observed her face, her lips were tinged with blue, her face was so white, ghostly. She was freezing. For god's sake, what was she thinking when she picked her wardrobe?

"You'll be fine Yuffie, I give you my word, you will be fine," he said, and never had she heard such concern in the man's voice. Heck, never had she heard _any_ emotion in his voice.

He unhitched his cloak, and bundled her in it, noting how her shivering came to a cease almost immediately, the body warmth he had been producing still remaining on the material, and it had encircled her when he had wrapped her in it. She looked drowsy, and she curled up in the sudden warmth, and he held her closely, forbidding her to fade away from him. The last thing he needed was another sin added onto his already impossibly long list. She leaned her head against his chest, and pulled the crimson cloak even closer around her tiny form.

He began moving, Red trailing behind them, hoping that they found someplace, anyplace to stay, to escape from the cold. It was a stupid decision to lead them out into the snow storm, especially when for a normal human, such as Yuffie, it was so dangerous.

Some time passed, and if anything the storm intensified. Occasionally, Vincent would look to the fiery beast that was trailing at their side, and he would appear to be going on strong. Red would never complain, never utter a word of discomfort, or pain, but Vincent knew he felt it. Red wasn't adapted to such a cold climate, after all, he had grown up in Cosmo Canyon, a generally warm place.

He looked down at the ninja, who lay nestled in his arms, her eyes closed, and oblivious to the world, and the freezing cold. It wasn't long after that she began to break free of the blissful oblivion.

"Vincent?" she whispered, drowsy eyes looking up into his face.

As per usual, he didn't respond, he simply glanced down at her, to acknowledge that he was remotely playing attention. She was silent, for a moment or so, as she studied his face, and as she studied his face, Vincent grew increasingly more uncomfortable, though he attempted to ignore the plaguing emotion.

"You don't like me, do you?" she asked, her voice so quiet, that he almost had trouble hearing her utter her question.

There was a long pause, as if Vincent had seriously begun to consider if he hated her or not. She continued to watch him, awaiting his response. Her stormy gaze never wavered, and she wasn't going to look away until he answered her question.

"Need I remind you that you're the one who said you disliked me first?" he finally retorted, and she shrugged her bony shoulders.

"Yeah, but I didn't mean that," she stated, and he cocked an eyebrow.

"Who's to say I meant what I said?" he asked, and Yuffie snickered.

"Because you obviously never joke around, or say things you don't mean. You're Vincent, the destroyer of all that is fun, and the king of angst," she said, eyes still fixed intently upon his pale, sun deprived features.

Vincent shook his head, and his crimson eyes softened, only for a moment or so, before the slight shift in emotions faded away as quickly as it had come.

"Quite the titles. No, Yuffie, I don't dislike you in the least. I suppose even like you to a certain extent, but if you want the truth, you irritate me quite a bit," he explained, and Yuffie's jaw almost fell.

He looked down at her questioningly.

"Holy mother of all that is good, did you know that we just sort of had a conversation? Heck, you actually let out a sentence that was longer than two words, and wasn't about something scientific, or orders, or whatnot," she said, a smile staining her lips.

"I could always stop talking completely, if you'd prefer," he shot coolly, and Yuffie shook her head rapidly, hair hitting Vincent in the chest.

"No, no, I like it better when you actually talk. Jeez, I'm having quite the effect on you, eh?" she said, with an arrogant grin.

He sighed, and knew that it was going to be a very long, long trip. His only consolation was that civilization couldn't be too far away, or at least, he hoped not. He may not hate Yuffie, but he sometimes wanted to take Death Penalty, and simply shoot her, just to shut her up. Not the most pleasant of thoughts, but what else would you expect? He rarely talked, and she never shut up.

"Wow, it's cold, freakishly cold, mother of all coldness," she said, stating the obvious, and Vincent shook his head slightly.

"Yes, Yuffie, it's cold," he agree, exasperated already.

"No, not just a little cold, really fucking cold," she said, squirming atop his arms.

"I see you've learned some colourful words from Cid," he replied dryly, and she grinned mischievously, wrapping the cloak tighter around her tiny figure.

There was a long pause, and all that could be heard was the whistling of the harsh wind, and their footsteps breaking through the thick piles of snow. It was getting deeper, much to Vincent's displeasure, and soon it would nearly be impossible for Red to walk through. They had to find shelter.

"Yuffie, I think you're well enough to walk on your own," said Vincent, and Yuffie grasped hold of his shirt, shaking her head wildly.

"Oh, I'm not, gosh, I'm really tired. So tired, I can feel myself drifting to sleep right now. So tired," and she collapsed in his arms, eyes shut tightly, and a forced serious expression on her face, obviously trying to keep off the smile.

He shook his head, and sighed.

"I know you're not asleep, Yuffie. That was a very pitiful attempt," he muttered, and he noticed her bite something in her mouth, likely her tongue, to keep her from breaking out into laughter.

Why wasn't he surprised?

He had half the mind to drop her into the snow, but that was likely to get them back into the same boat that they started in. Perfect, just perfect. He really did have the worst luck in the world.

---------------------

Cid slammed his fist into the airship's floor as he moved the instrument over the frozen pipes and wires. It was snowing like hell, and pretty well the whole airship was frozen solid. Unless he got them to thaw, they couldn't repair anything.

"This is fuckin' takin' forever, who uses a blow-dryer to thaw anything?" muttered Barret, standing behind Cid, "I say we jus' use a low power Fire. It would work wonders, wonders!"

Cid rolled his eyes and twisted his head to look at the big black man as if he were the biggest idiot on the planet. He continued to use the hot pink hairdryer to thaw the ice, moving it slowly across the frozen equipment.

"Oh, that makes perfect damned sense. Electricity, gas, and Fire magic. Sounds like a great fuckin' combination. You idiot, we'll explode," he growled, irritated beyond recognition.

"It was a jus' a suggestion, and it wasn' that bad either," he retorted, crossing his thick arms across his chest, or at least, he tried to.

"Oh yes, great frigin suggestion. Maybe if the heating goes out, we can set ourselves on fuckin' fire because hey, at least we'd be warm. Now, isn't that a nice damned suggestion?" snapped Cid, running a hand through his blond hair.

Barret rolled his eyes, and stepped back a few feet, realising Cid was in one of those moods. Probably because of lack of Nicotine. It was moments like those where Barret wished he'd just break his promise to Shera and smoke ten packets of smokes, at least then he'd be in a semi-pleasant mood.

Barret's felt his feet get caught in the cerulean wire, but before he could even think to untangle himself, he pulled on the wire too hard, and out came the plug, and the power came to a cease. There was a long, long string of colourful curses that echoed through that ship and made Barret blush with embarrassment. Maybe that moment wasn't the best time for him to be alive…

"What the hell!?" he screamed, and spun around, eyes wide with fury.

"Erm, sorry?" said Barret sheepishly, a grin forming, despite Cid's obvious look of enragement and absolute anger.

"You stupid son of a-" he was cut off by the sound of breaking glass coming from the house, and Cid froze.

"Shera," he said, and dashed out of the airship without a second thought, grasping Venus Gospel in his hand on the way out.

Barret trailed after him, and rushed into the house, back door hanging open. There in the kitchen, was Cid, weapon ready for attack, Shera standing in the corner of the room, hand instinctively on her stomach, and another, a man whom Barret didn't recognize.

The man looked just like any other, except for the crazed expression hanging in his dark brown eyes. He was hungry, desperate and completely and utterly insane. There was no true life in his eyes, only darkness, pure, unadulterated darkness, and it gleamed with maliciousness. The man was staring at Shera, watching, waiting for her, and Barret wondered if he even noticed their presence.

There was a gleam to the corner of his eye, and he noticed the dagger gripped in the man's hand. He was holding it so tightly that the man's knuckles completely white, the skin pressed so closely to them.

He slowly circled around Shera, like a hunter to his prey, and Shera pressed her back harder into the corner, as if hopping that she'd be able to fall through the wall, though, unsurprisingly, she had no luck.

"Hey, hey! You stupid piece of shit, what do you think you're doing?" shouted Cid, grip tightening on his spear.

The man didn't even glance at him, his wild eyes remained fixed on Shera's pale face, the blood had long since drained from it. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she knew that she couldn't get away, not when he was watching her so intently.

He raised the dagger above his head, preparing to attack, and he got into the position where Barret knew that he was going to charge her. Cid, by no surprise, wasn't liking this idea, and had one of his own. He broke out into a charge of his own, and collided into the man with enough force, that the man was sent flying into the wall.

Shera squeaked, and ran to Cid, grasping onto his arm, and twisting around behind him as if he were a shield. Cid glanced back at her, for a split second, to be sure that she was alright. He felt complete and utter relief when he noticed that she was perfectly fine, aside from being a bit shaken up.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed movement, and twisted his head around to find the man pushing himself up off the floor, barely even dazed. Cid backed away a few paces, before he whispered softly to Shera.

"Run."

And with that, Shera bolted out the backdoor, knowing well enough that Cid could handle himself, especially in the company of Barret.

Cid's cerulean eyes narrowed, and he readied his spear. The man had already regained his posture, and had his dagger ready. With one slick, and sudden movement, he dove at Cid, the man barely dodging it by a hare's breath. Barret, while this was going on, begun to aim his weapon. The man with the hungry eyes didn't even take notice to the big black man, and continued to attempt to harm Cid.

Cid had barely had time to regain his posture, and the man was attacking him once more. This time, Cid couldn't dodge it. The man sliced through his arm, opening a violent gash, and blood immediately began to trickle out of the wound.

Cid jabbed the spear at the man, who promptly dodged it, and smiled at Cid. His smile held no emotion. It was lifeless, dead. Cid couldn't ignore the feeling of sudden fear in his gut. The man was insane, he held no conscious, and that look in his eyes, it was enough to make even him want to run away screaming, or rather, cursing.

Barret fired the gun, and the bullet ripped through the flesh at the man's waist, tearing through his grey shirt, and breaking through his skin. The man didn't even cry out. It was as if he hadn't even felt the bullet.

The man's hungry look intensified, but he never once looked away from Cid. He went to stab Cid in the neck, but the blond man parried it with the tip of his spear. The man looked disgruntled, annoyed that his attack had been avoided once again. Another attack, and another. Cid dodged them constantly, and Barret shot more bullets, though they had little effect.

That disgruntled look had been the first bit of pure emotion that Cid had seen at all. Maybe that was a bit of a relief, maybe it was reassuring that the man was at least remotely human. If he was susceptible to emotions like a human was, than he could die like a human. Right?

The man screamed, and ran into Cid, forcing both him and Cid to the floor. Barret aimed his weapon, or tried to, though it was pretty well useless. They tussled on the ground, both Venus Gospel and the dagger had been dropped as they hit the floor. Cid drew back his fist, and punched the man in the jaw, over, and over. His hits were strong enough that the jaw cracked, but again, the man didn't so much as wince of pain.

The man twisted around so that he was on top, and reached over, grabbing the dagger, before attempting to plummet it into Cid's chest. Cid grabbed the man's hand, and tried to force it away, and they were deadlocked in a position with the man on top, trying his hardest to plunge the knife into Cid, and Cid trying to force it away.

Bullets broke the deadlock, and the man fell over, a good five or so bullet holes imprinted into the man's right temple. Cid panted, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and he pushed the man off him, clang of the fallen dagger echoing through the room.

He sat up, and looked around, attempting to register what had just happened. He was alive, that must have been a good sign.

"Shera?" he said in between pants, and looked to Barret, his sapphire blue eyes glazed with bewilderment.

"I dunno where she went," he replied with a sullen shrug.

Cid pushed himself up, gripping his arm tightly, ignoring the painful sensation that jolted through him. He made his way out of the house, not even bothering to bandage up his arm, or cure it.

He walked through Rocket Town, eyes roaming around freely, searching for his love. His gaze caught hold of something, and there Shera was, sitting next to the road, arms wrapped around herself tightly, and she was shivering.

Cid cautiously walked up to her, and he kneeled over, staring her straight in the face. Her dark eyes slowly travelled to his bewildered face, glasses falling to the edge of her nose. Their gazes were locked for a few moments, as if trying to memorize every inch of each other's face.

"Shera, what the hell are you doing?" he asked, though the harsh words didn't match his soft voice, which was tinted with intense worry.

She didn't answer at first, it took a few moments for the words to break passed her lips. Her face was so pale, that it was only a shade off white, and her eyes were wide with a terror that Cid had never seen before.

"It was cold, it touched me. I can still feel it. It won't go away," she said, her voice so soft that Cid had to strain to hear her.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, his voice becoming unintentionally rough.

She blinked. "Can't you see him? He's waiting for me to let him in, or until he's strong enough to force himself inside."

"Who?"

"The man right there. Can't you see him?"

She raised her arm, her trembling finger pointing out in front of her. Cid followed her finger, and looked in that direction. His gaze flew around the area, trying to find something, anything. All he saw was thin air.

"He's still there. He's watching us."

"I don't understand," stated Cid, reaching over to touch her face.

Her flesh was cool to the touch, despite the fact how a sweat had broken out along her brow. Her eyes were staring at the area where she was pointing.

"Can't you see him?"

---------------------

There we are. I didn't particularly like this chapter, something about it bothers me, but I can't put my finger on it. Oh well. Anyhow, thanks to all who reviewed before! .

To veilinglife – Of course Cait Sith'll show up. I can't forget that furry ball of annoyance. He'll be mentioned in the next few chapters or so I imagine, and actually come into the story later I should hope : )


	5. Fading Oblivion

Disclaimer – See prologue. I should really just stop putting this

I have some discussion that deal with homosexuality, I sure hope no one takes offence to it, for none of it was meant to be remotely offensive in any way, and it doesn't sound offensive to me, but you know, it's all of perspective.

Heh, just thought I should clear that up in case someone reads them and decides to have an emotional breakdown, or something of that matter. The discussion actually just struck me as something that would happen with Yuffie for whatever reason.

Porcelain by Red Hot Chilli Peppers  
Porcelain  
Do you carry the moon in your womb  
Someone said that you're fading too soon  
Drifting and floating and fading away

Chapter 4 – Fading Oblivion  
-

Hector looked in the mirror, and sighed. He'd never get used to this new body. It was much uglier than his original body had been, but what could he do? He was lucky that this body had been so easy to take. The soul had been weak, too weak to fight him. He was out in less than a day. Someone that weak _deserved_ to be thrown out. As they say, only the strong survive. How true, oh, how true.

He walked around the room, his mind flying over numerous subjects. He could hear the Lifestream's screams, a whisper in his mind. He had broken her, he had poisoned her, just as he knew he would. He had poisoned the souls inside as well, with just a mere thought, or a touch, and when he forced open Lifestream's gates, he had forced out all the souls into real world. He had branded them like cattle, and now owned their souls. My, that type of power truly was intoxicating.

His experiment had worked as intended, and here he was, and everything was going according to plan. Well, that is, excluding one minor detail. AVALANCHE. Persistent bastards, he should have been rid of them beforehand. No matter, spilled milk, he'd get rid of them another way. His people were already on it.

He exited the bedroom, and as he stepped into the living room, he noticed a woman sitting on the leather couch. She had pin straight hair, which was as black as night, and soft features that must have been Wutainese. Her eyes were a deep gold colour, and she wore an emerald dress that ended mid thigh, and dipped low to reveal a significant amount of cleavage. Her wide eyes focused on his face, and a half-smile teased her dark lips.

She glanced over at the man next to her, and Hector followed her gaze. The man was dressed in all black, black sweatshirt, and black jeans. His skinned was pale, contrasting with olive toned skin of the woman next to him. His hair was silver, and hung just above his broad shoulders. It was sleek, and shone in the morning sunlight, much like the woman's. His eyes were a striking aqua, though they were emotionless, almost dull, and very bored. He stared at Hector, and he almost resembled a lifeless, though visually appealing, puppet.

"Marissa, Taber, what are you two doing here?" asked Hector, eyes narrowing on her tanned face, and her smile broke free.

"We were bored, everything's going just dandy, and I wanted to come see you. God, you're always worrying about nothing," she said, voice dancing on the edge of laughter.

"I've worked too hard for you two to screw it up because you were bored, now get up and make sure that every little detail is perfect," hissed Hector, his voice as sharp as scalpels twisting along their ears.

"Oh calm down, Hector, everything'll be fine, give us a break," she said, a whininess in her voice that Hector related to nails on a chalkboard.

"I said, _get up_," there was a certain tone and demand to his voice, that as soon as the words left his mouth, Marissa was forced to snap up as fast as humanly possible.

"Wow, ok, whatever. You didn't have to force me up. I hate it when you do that, I would have gotten up eventually," she muttered, her lips curling into a pout.

"Don't test me, Marissa. You belong to me. Don't make me show you how truly horrifying that can be," he said coldly, eyes burning into her face, and she crossed her arms, and for a moment, she looked like a pouting child.

Hector's eyes snapped to Taber's face, who was watching them, no emotion once entering his face or his eyes. Just a lifeless puppet.

"Are you testing me too?" he growled, and Taber just blinked.

"Hardly," he said, and forced himself up to his feet.

"Good, now both of you, get going," he said, and both Marissa and Taber left the house without another word.

Hector put both hands on each side of his temples, and began to massage them in tiny circles. He could feel a migraine coming on like a vicious tidal wave. If those two did anything more to compromise his success, then he'd have to punish them. He didn't want to deal with that, he had too many other things to deal with at the given moment. Frustrating, to say the least.

-

Tifa twisted onto her feet, and jumped at the redhead before she knew what hit her. The woman shrieked as they both went tumbling to the ground. The butcher knife was still in Sally's hand as they rolled around the ground. At one point Tifa was under Sally, and she raised the knife, and brought it down. Tifa rolled away as quickly as possible, and barely missed getting stabbed. The knife crashed into the wooden ground, becoming stuck.

Tifa panted, and forced herself up to her feet. She glanced over at the bed, her russet eyes searching. Cloud was sitting up, looking around wildly, as if he were in a daze. He caught sight of her, his deep blue eyes staring into her face, as he took a moment or so to register.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked, pushing himself off the bed.

There was another shriek, and they both looked to Sally, who had finally gotten the knife unstuck from its spot in the hardwood floor. Cloud pushed himself back in surprise, nearly falling off the bed, though Sally took no notice. The look in her eyes was the same as it had been in Asher's, wild and hungry. Tifa instantly knew that Sally was out to mutilate them. Lovely as always.

Tifa looked in the corner, where Premium Heart lay, just waiting to be used. She'd have to get passed Sally to put it on. That was going to be incredibly interesting. Tifa looked over at Cloud, motioning her head towards the wild Sally.

He looked at the redhead, then back to Tifa, trying to get what she was saying. Tifa's eyes widened with frustration, and she looked back over at Sally, who looked as if she were considering where to stab her first.

Cloud then realised that Tifa needed a distraction to be able to get to her weapon, and he began to near Sally, making as much noise as humanly possible. Sally's head snapped over at Cloud, and she instantly forgot Tifa.

She ran towards Cloud, and swiped the weapon madly, hoping that she'd slash Cloud. Luck obviously was against Cloud that morning, because he didn't move quick enough, and was slashed across the chest. A deep gash was immediately formed, and blood began to slowly ooze out. He cried out in shock, and went to use his cure materia.

That could have been a good idea, that is, had he had any of his materia. His armour was long gone, and his weapon was behind Sally.

Tifa grasped hold of Premium Heart, and ran towards Sally. The redhead didn't even notice, and was nailed in the back. There were the cracks of bones, and the woman flew to the floor, face smashing into it mercilessly. Cloud, hand gripped against his wounded chest, made his way to Ultima Weapon, leaving a still dazed Sally on the ground.

Tifa cautiously moved closer to the woman, watching the glimmering weapon cautiously, hoping to god that Sally was too dazed to even consider using it. As soon as she was close enough, Tifa grabbed the weapon out of Sally's weakened hand, and tossed it into the opposite corner of the room.

Cloud, looked at his materia, and loudly cursed, realising that his cure materia was in his armour. Tifa glanced at him, suddenly registering the wound on his chest. He spun around to look at her.

"Cure me," he said, trying his best to keep the blood from pouring down his body, though the attempt was rather poor.

Blood was running down his chest, oozing passed his stomach, onto the rim of his boxers, and Tifa just stared at him for a few moments.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, his voice was soft, deathly calm.

"My cure materia is in my armour, where's yours?" she asked, and he grinned wryly.

"Mine too. What are the fuckin' odds?" he asked dryly, and took a seat on the bed, using the covers as a bandage of sorts.

Tifa's lips twisted in a frown, and she looked at Sally, who had just raised her head, looking around in a fading daze. Her face was bloodied, and her nose was broken, and placed in a very odd position that, had Tifa not been worried for Cloud, probably would have found it entertaining.

"I'd better tie her to the bed before she tries anything," said Tifa, and Cloud nodded his head faintly.

"I'll go find a potion, or something, before I bleed to death," muttered Cloud, getting up off the bed, and walking out of the room.

Tifa pulled Sally up, and yanked her on the bed, Sally giving a bit of a struggle, but Tifa was much stronger. The femme fighter used the bed sheets as bonds, and tied the woman's limbs to the bed tightly, so that she could barely move.

Cloud came back, clothes and armour for both of them in his arms. His wound had been healed up enough that the gash had temporarily stopped bleeding, but any sort of sudden movement would reopen it.

They both redressed in what seemed to be record time, and they stood near Sally's bed. At the sudden attention brought on her face, the woman began to laugh wildly, as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

Both Tifa and Cloud cocked their eyebrows, and looked to one another, obviously confused at the sudden display of amusement. As soon as Sally's laughter began to fade away, Tifa began to speak.

"Why'd you try to kill us?" she asked, russet eyes locked on Sally's fair face.

Sally couldn't help but smile. "Because I was told to, of course."

"Who told you to kill us?" she asked, her voice becoming suddenly very hard.

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't," Cloud broke in, pressing his sword roughly against the redhead's neck, "we'll kill you."

Sally began to laugh once again, her skin rubbing against the blade enough that a small cut was made, but not even a flicker of fear or pain coursed through her. This, of course, bewildered both Tifa and Cloud. The woman wasn't afraid to die, in fact she seemed to welcome death with open arms.

"Go ahead, kill me, what do I care? I'll just find another body anyway," she paused, and looked at Tifa squarely in the face, her smile widening, "maybe I'll even take your body. I'll bet that'll be fun."

Tifa's lips twisted into a look of sheer disgust, and she felt the urge to step back, though she didn't let herself do it.

"What do you mean?" she asked, and Sally just shrugged her shoulders.

"I mean what I say I mean. Killing me won't do shit, all it does is kill this body. Speaking of this body, it's not even mine. I stole it, simple as that. I'll steal yours too, Tifa, was it?"

"How can you steal bodies? After you die, you go to Lifestream. There isn't an opportunity to steal bodies," stated Cloud, crossing his arms against his wounded chest.

"Not anymore. I'm not telling you anything more, so if you're going to kill me, just kill me and be done with it," she growled, though the amusement was hanging in her voice.

"There are things I can do that won't kill you, but you'll wish I had," muttered Cloud, blue eyes narrowing on her face, and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Go ahead, you don't have the balls to torture me. Even if you did, I can take it," she replied, looking him straight in the eye.

"Were you lying about the Turks? Did they actually come, or was that just a scheme used to gain our trust and such?" asked Tifa, and Sally looked at her, her eyebrow cocked.

"Oh, I wasn't lying about that. Those bloodsuckers actually did come, with their little robotic cat too. That thing was damned annoying," muttered Sally, rolling her emerald eyes at the memory of it.

Cloud and Tifa glanced at each other, and replied in unison, "Cait Sith."

"Yeah, that would be the one. Holy mother, I wanted to take that butcher knife over there, and slice and dice it. I came this close too, _this close_. Amen to them leaving," she growled, struggling against the restraints that bound her to the bed.

"Do you know where they went?" asked Tifa, and there was a long pause, Sally considering if she should tell the woman or not.

"It doesn't make any damned difference if I tell you or not, they know about as much as you do. They said they were going to Icicle Inn, though it's unlikely that you'll make it there. When they realise that I didn't kill you, they'll send others. You can't kill souls, only the bodies we reside in, so sooner or later, you will be killed," she stated, and neither Tifa or Cloud spoke.

When there was no reply from either of them, Sally decided that she had more to say.

"I wouldn't advise you to go find the Turks. That annoying cat is with them, and the only thing they'll give you is one big damned migraine," she muttered, and looked as if a migraine was coming upon her with the mere memory of Cait.

"Are you going to tell us who told you to kill us?" asked Cloud, and the woman just blinked, and stared at him for a moment or so as if he had three heads.

Then she relaxed against the restraints, and closed her eyes, as if she were trying to fall asleep. Both Cloud and Tifa knew that they wouldn't be getting anything more from her. She was a stubborn one, incredibly stubborn.

"Fine, we're leaving. Good luck to you being tied to the bed," muttered Cloud coldly as he began to back away.

A flicker of amusement crossed her face, though she never opened her eyes. A half-smile played at her lips, and she responded to his comment.

"Good riddance. They'll notice I'm gone, they'll come find me, and more importantly, they'll notice you're not as dead as a doornail, and go to find you. Bye, bye, my dear friends," she replied, and Cloud froze.

"If you can find another body, we can too," he retorted, and to that comment, she did open her eyes, and she smiled like the Cheshire cat.

"Is that so? I'm thinking not, you wouldn't be strong enough to take over someone else's body, and even if you were, you sure as hell wouldn't push out someone else's soul, kicking them out of their body. Of course not, you're too pure, and kind to do something as horrible as that. Pansies," she spat, and Cloud's cerulean eyes narrowed on her face, eyes locked on her face, though she didn't fidget, didn't even pay attention to it.

Cloud spun around, annoyance grating at him, and placing him in an unpleasant mood. Tifa gave Sally one last look, before following Cloud out of the room, slamming the door behind her. They walked out of the unoccupied bar, and stood outside.

The wind was freezing, and as it ran along Tifa's skin it immediately forced goose bumps to rise up at any and all exposed skin. She took notice that the sky was still dark, and that another phenomenon was happening. A few stray snowflakes were falling from the sky.

She shivered slightly, and ran her hands up and down her arms. It felt like it were the middle of winter, and that the temperature was at least a good fifteen below. If it was that cold in Junon, it would be twice as cold at Icicle Inn, assuming they were still going.

"Are we still going to find the Turks? She said that they knew about as much as we did, and you know, they are nothing but a pain in the ass," she said, and Cloud looked at her, the wheels in his head working double time.

"We should. They have resources that we might need, and despite how annoying they can be, they can be useful," he replied, the words accompanied with a shrug.

"If we're going, we should stop and get some winter clothes. We won't last at Icicle Inn if it's as cold as I think it is," she stated, and Cloud nodded his head in agreement.

"You're right. I'm pretty sure there's a clothing store somewhere around here."

They walked forward, until they came to a building which held a selection of huge windows that revealed the selection of clothing inside. Cloud pushed open the glass door, a little bell ringing their presence, though there was no one to notify, and both him and Tifa went searching for winter clothes.

They picked out a few articles of winter clothes, as well as a backpack to put extra articles in, and they got changed in the changing room. They were ready, and very warm. Cloud pulled out a few gil, and tossed it on the counter, paying for all they took, and they walked out.

He whistled the moment they stepped out of the shop, the sound bouncing off the buildings, and echoing through out the seemingly abandoned town. Within seconds, the chocobos came racing towards them, only stopping long enough for them to get on, before they were off.

They went in the direction of Icicle Inn, and the farther north they went, the more intense the snowing became. Snowflakes fell down from the sky, like mini diamonds, cool, almost sharp-like edges sliding against their uncovered faces, chilling them to the bone, despite their winter garments. It was getting worst, they could both feel it, feel it almost as well as they could feel the cold soak into their flesh, and force away the warmth.

-

They were still treading through the snow, it seemed endless. Endless plains kissed of snow. The snowing hadn't stopped, it was almost like they were walking in circles. With his luck, they probably were. He couldn't doubt it, he really couldn't. On the bright side, assuming they are treading in circles, it couldn't possibly get any worst. That was optimism for you.

"I spy with my little, beautiful, stunning, and absolutely fabulous grey eye, something white," said Yuffie, who had long since given up pretending to sleep, but still insisted on being carried.

Vincent rolled his crimson eyes, and didn't bother to respond, which irritated Yuffie completely. She smacked him lightly on his upper chest, and he glanced down at her, and blinked as her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.

"Come on, Vinnie, you have to guess. Guess," she said, though it was more of demand.

He sighed, exasperated, and gave in, just to get her off his back, "I don't know, Yuffie, it's such a hard thing to guess, but I'll have to say snow."

"Lucky guess, lucky guess. I spy with my little, beautiful-" she was promptly interrupted by an irritated gunslinger.

"No Yuffie, we're not playing this anymore. Nor are we playing any other game, and if you insist on playing something, I'll put you down, and you can walk," he growled coolly, and she grinned up at him, amused at having irritated him.

"Such a spoil sport," she muttered, and crossed her arms, and he shook his head.

"I know, I'm the destroyer of all that is fun," he retorted, and she snickered, causing him to shake his head once again.

"Yuffie, perhaps you should consider giving Vincent a break, and stop tormenting him for a few minutes. He is carrying you, after all," said Red, and she looked over Vincent's shoulder at the giant cat, who had remained all but silent the entire trip.

"Now why would I do that? It's so much fun to torment Vinnie-boy, and I know that deep down, he loves it. After all, who wouldn't want to be teased by a hottie like me?" she asked, and both Red and Vincent remained silent, deciding that their comments were best kept to them selves, for the sake of peace.

"Anyhow, Vinnie, aren't you cold? I mean, I did steal your cape thingamabobber. It's pretty slick, if I say so myself. Smells a bit musty, but hey. Who'd have known that Vince would have such nice taste in clothes. Maybe he's gay, most gay guys have better taste in clothes than straight dudes. Are you gay, Vinnie?" she asked, mischievous smile planted on her face, and she was hoping for a reaction, hoping that her questions irritated him, just for the hell of it.

"No, I'm not particularly cold, and no, I'm not homosexual," he replied, knowing that she was trying to get a reaction from him.

"Such a shame, gay guys are pretty cool," she said with a shrug, and Vincent glanced down at her.

"And how many homosexuals do you happen to know?" asked Vincent, and Yuffie paused, thinking for a moment or so.

"I'm pretty sure one, Cloud. There could be more, like Red. Red could be gay, but he could just be hiding in the closet. Red, are you a closet gay?" she asked, looking back over Vincent's shoulder to an amused Red.

"Hardly, and what makes you so sure that Cloud isn't straight?" asked Red, causing Yuffie grin in reaction.

"Well, Tifa always seems to be hitting on him, and he's never submitting to it, and come on, what guy has ever been able to resist her? Then there's the fact that he spends more time on his hair than me-" she was cut off by a sarcastic remark.

"Not that that's saying much," retorted Vincent, and Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"Hmph, are you saying that I don't put effort into making my hair all pretty and such? I brush it, what more do you want?" she asked, and heard Red chuckle with amusement, and she glanced at him, before snorting.

There was a few moments of silence where they were all left to their own thoughts, and Yuffie looked down at the ground, which was piled with snow. She looked to Red, who was struggling thought it, and she could tell that he was utterly exhausted.

"How long do you think until we reach some form of civilization? Poor Red looks like he's going to pass out. He's having a hell of a time ploughing through that snow. We should get him some snowshoes or something next time we're at a store," said Yuffie, shattering the silence with ease. "Red in snowshoes would be pretty funny to see, eh?"

"I don't know, I should hope soon. I'd hate to have to carry him as well. Red in snowshoes would be a very interesting sight indeed," said Vincent, glad that a more constructive conversation had been formed.

For a long time, there was no talking. Yuffie just watched the scenery as they passed it by, despite how it all looked the same. Vincent looked around, becoming almost desperate to find any form of life. He was beginning to get tired, and it took a lot for him to get tired. Poor Red must be on his last bit of energy.

Speaking of the beast, Vincent looked back at him, and he indeed was struggling more than ever through the snow. He noticed that the temperature seemed a bit cooler, and that nightfall would be in a few short hours. Once nightfall hit, it would be much too cold for even him.

The gunslinger looked down at his companion, to find that she had fallen asleep once more. She looked peaceful when she slept, which was a change from her normal zestful façade. She was very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

There was a sudden noise, a yelp of pain from behind him, and Vincent spun around to find Red collapsed in the snow, three figures in huge white parkas standing over him. Before Vincent could even consider going for Death Penalty, he was shot twice in the neck. He gasped, the sudden pain from two, what looked to be, tranquilizers indented into his neck.

Despite his increased metabolism, there was no way he could even begin to resist the amount of drugs being pumped through his body. His world blackened, and he tumbled over, losing grip of Yuffie. He tried to move, despite how he couldn't exactly see, but it was useless. Then he was completely out.

The ninja yelped at being exposed so suddenly cold, and was about to shriek at someone, until she realised Vincent passed out in the snow. She didn't even notice the people in white before her, she was too surprised that Vincent had suddenly tumbled over as he seemed to have had.

"Vincent, what are you-" she was interrupted

"Only one tranquilizer, she's only human," muttered a voice, and Yuffie looked in the direction, and was taken aback for a second.

"Who the hell are you guys? Ya'll look like frigin-" cut off again by a tranquilizer to the neck.

Yuffie variously cursed herself for not going for her Conformer, and kicking their beastly asses, but had little more time to beat herself up, for her world went dark as fast as it had for Vincent.

-

Cid held her in his arms as they sat down on the couch. He rocked her quivering figure gently. She felt so…weak. He laid his face into her brown mane, and let his cheek rest against the side of her head. What was wrong with her? Why Shera?

"It's alright, it's alright, stop shivering, please," he said, his voice breaking into a sort of begging.

Shera didn't even acknowledge his heart shattering pleas. She just ignored him, and continued to quiver. Her eyes were like two glassy, lifeless marbles. She never blinked, not once, just stared out straight in front of her, as if she had fallen into a coma.

"Shera, for fuck sakes, I can't take you acting like this. Come back to me, now!" he said, his words loud and harsh, though his voice bordered on breaking out into sobs.

Barret watched the sight from across the room, and didn't know what to do, or what to say to comfort him. He was never particularly good at comforting people. He found it better to let them be, and work out their own problems, but this bothered him. How could you watch your friend suffer, and not do something…anything?

"Shera, please. I'll… do anything," he whispered, holding onto her so tight that Barret was worried that he'd hurt her.

"He said that he'd take me, remember? He would hurt me unless I gave myself to him," she said emotionlessly.

"I don't care what the hell he said, I won't let him have you. I'll kill him, I won't let anyone hurt you, ever, didn't I fuckin' tell you that long ago?" he muttered, and a slight smile broke on her face.

"You told me that, and…you meant it, I think, but you can't stop him. You can't even see him," she retorted, and she stopped shivering, though her body was still way below normal warmth.

"I don't need to see him. I'll protect you from anything, don't you understand? Hell, I never thought I'd say that to anyone," he said hoarsely, his voice rough and hard.

"I'm afraid Cid. He said it's dark where he is, and cold. It'll always be cold. When he touched me I, I froze over. I was numbed, and I shivered, and no matter how much I shivered I could never get warm. I can't let him take me, but I can't escape him. He told me I couldn't, and he wasn't lying," she said, slowly exiting the puppet-like state she had been trapped in, and then fading back to how she was.

"Why the hell did you act that way just now? It was like you were in a coma, and it scared the shit out of me," said Cid, rubbing Shera's goose bump stained arm.

"It was so cold," was all she could say, and she shifted her body so that she could bury her face into his warm chest.

"I don't know what to do Cid. What am I supposed to do?" she asked, and despite how he never heard a single sob, he felt a wetness at the front of his shirt, she was crying.

It broke his heart to watch her suffer, and he had no idea what to say to her. So he held her, and gave affection and comfort the only way he could for her. She wrapped her arms around his torso, and pressed against him so closely that she looked almost moulded against him. He kissed the top of her head, stubble brushing against her strands of brown hair. He…well, he loved her. He still had trouble admitting that, and rarely told her it. It made him uncomfortable. Telling her those words mad him vulnerable. He never liked feeling vulnerable.

Barret suddenly felt very uncomfortable around such displays of affection, particularly since one of the givers was Cid. Cid giving any sort of kindness was odd in itself, but this full out affection…well, they might has well have been having full out sex on the couch, because that's how uncomfortable he felt.

Shera released him, and backed away slightly to look at him in the face. The first thing she saw were those soft blue eyes, standing out amongst the roughness of his face. Cid touched her cheek gently, and kissed her. It was gentle, almost chaste.

"I love you," and he uttered those words so quietly, that Shera barely heard them, but when she finally made them out, her face became a light bulb, lit up on full power.

She nuzzled him gently, and sat back on the couch, before nodding Barret's way, knowing well enough that he felt very odd in the same room as them. Cid smiled, and Cid smiling was a rare thing in itself. Grinning, sure, snickering, what the hell? But rarely full out smiling.

"You're fine? Not going to have a god damned seizure now?" he asked, crossing his arms, his face returning back to the serious expression it usually had.

"Stop cursing," she ordered, and shivered slightly, finding herself a bit more cold without his body heat.

"Eh, whatever. Ok numb nuts, get your ass back to the airship and start thawing it out. No fire magic. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? No. Fire. Magic. Good, I hope you understand that now. Use the blow dryer, and hurry your ass up, it'll be night soon," said Cid, looking over that big black man, who was suddenly very glad to have Cid back to his old asshole self.

"Don' tell me what to do," growled Barret, but he made his way outside of the house anyway.

Cid wouldn't be coming with him, he knew that. He had to make sure that Shera was safe, and there was no one he trusted more with that job than himself. Not that Barret could blame him.

He picked up the hot pink blow-dryer as he sat himself onto the metal ground. It was freezing outside, and he definitely regretted not having a coat. He wasn't about to whine about it though, of course not, he was a tough guy. Tough guys could withstand the cold. Damn right.

He went to flick on the blow-dryer, and alas, nothing happened. Then he remembered, he had tripped on the cord and unplugged it.

"God dammit," he muttered harshly, and slammed his fist into the ground.

It was just one thing after another, and he briefly wondered how much worst it would get.

-

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, it makes me happy to see people actually reading and seemingly enjoying my story thingamabobber .

I especially enjoy the constructive criticism, I'd like the improve my writing, so I really do encourage it nod, nod

Oh, and I of course agree, Lacuna Coil is awesomeness. I adore them .


	6. Boxed Inside Hazy Memories

Disclaimer – Prologue.

I actually have no commentary for this chapter. Figure that.

**Let That be Enough by Switchfoot**  
Wish I had what I needed  
To be on my own  
'Cause I feel so defeated  
And I'm feeling alone

Chapter 5 – Boxed Inside Hazy Memories

* * *

She slowly allowed her eyelids to flutter open, and she instantly winced as the pain crashed against her like a violent tidal wave, why did her head hurt so much? Better question, why was it so dark? Was she dead? Maybe the snow killed them all as she thought it would. Maybe her body had finally given into the dreadful cold, and it froze over, her heart slowing, her breathing coming to a stop. She was too damned young to die, in fact if she was dead, as she assumed she was, she was going to find that damned grim reaper and kick his ass. Dumb bastard, how dare he? 

Actually, she was quite comfy. Something soft was under her, and covers snuggled around her tiny form, giving her warmth. Maybe she wasn't dead after all. What luck.

Yuffie rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and she sat up. Her vision was blurry, like she had been sleeping for a decade and was relearning how to see again. What an unpleasant though, who would want to sleep for a decade? She looked over to the bed next to her, and there was Mr. Happy, still unconscious on the bed.

_Oh._

She pushed herself off the bed and tried to stand. Her legs hurt more than she cared to think about, and she almost regretted moving at all. She wasn't liking the side effects to that shitty tranquilizer they gave her. _They_. Who were they?

"Stupid creeps, if I ever see them again, I'll beat them down so hard that they'll never be able to—hey, where's my materia? My weapons? Wait, screw it all, what about my clothes?" she muttered to herself, looking down at the white dress that ended a little before her feet. It was sleeveless and goose bumps paraded along her exposed arms.

She made a sound that sounded a bit like a growl, and walked over to Vincent's bed. She leaned over enough to jab the man roughly in the chest, expecting an immediate response. The man didn't so much as flinch, and he was as stiff as a board.

"Vincent, this is no time for napping. Haven't you napped enough? You've already slept most of your life away, wake up!" she said loudly, and flicked him in the nose. Nothing.

"For god's sake, there's no way you're this deep of a sleeper. You're breathing, so you're not dead. How much of that stuff did they pump you with? You know what? I don't care. Wake up now. Wake up or else…" she said, and crossed her cool arms across her chest.

"Oh, I know, you're testing me. Doing this just to bother me. Getting revenge on poor old me, all because I told you to carry me. Not like I was that much of a burden anyway. I'm a skinny little thing, as light as a feather, give me a break," she snapped, and smacked him in the arm. Nothing again.

"Ok Vincent, this is starting to get a bit annoying. God. Don't make me slap you. I'll do it, I swear," she growled, and waited a few moments to see if he'd give up his supposed little game of 'Torment the Yuffie'. When he didn't open his eyes, she snapped. "Fine, fine! You asked for it."

Just as she went to slap him, his eyelids jolted open, and he caught her wrist with his human hand. He glared up at her, and continued to hold tightly onto her tiny wrist, despite her struggles to get him to release it.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked her, annoyance tinting his voice.

"You wouldn't wake up, and it was beginning to make me mad. I gave you fair warning. Not my fault at all," she retorted, and he released her wrist, shaking his head, as if he couldn't believe what she had just told him.

"Where's Red?" he asked, looking around the dimly lit room, and Yuffie shrugged her bony shoulders.

"How am I supposed to know? I was too busy trying to wake you up to go and find him," she replied, and he just shook his head once more.

He pushed himself out of the bed, rolled his neck and shoulders to get the kinks out of them, and then made his way across the room towards the door. Yuffie followed him, and just noticed that his usual black clothes with his overdramatic crimson cape and golden shoes had disappeared as well. Not to mention his crimson headband, which kept the hair from falling out of his face most of the time.

Seeing Vincent without his headband made her realise that she was missing hers. Now that was just going way too far. When she met these people, she was going to have to break out a can of whoop ass. Oh yeah. They'd quiver under the wrath of the great and powerful Yuffie.

The new clothes he got were rather different from what he usually wore. A white button-up shirt, accompanied with a pair of matching pants, which must have been two sizes too large, for they were barely clinging onto his bony hips. He was actually looking pretty normal, well, aside from the nifty golden claw, and the garnet eyes.

"Hey, Vinnie, nice new clothes," she said, and he paused before looking down at himself, apparently not noticing his new wardrobe until that second.

"Hmm. Interesting selection," he muttered coldly, clearly as annoyed as she was that his usual clothes selection had gone astray.

"Why'd you get pants, and I get jipped off with this stupid dress?" she muttered, looking down at the clothing with complete disgust.

"Hmm," was all he replied with, and he looked at her for a moment, just realising that she indeed was wearing a dress. Interesting sight.

He twisted at the door knob, to find it unlocked, and easily pulled the door open. Opening the door let in a cool draft, and it weaved around Yuffie's bare skin, causing her to involuntarily shiver. Stupid cold, why was it always cold?

As she stepped outside the room, she realised that they had exited into a hallway, one as dimly lit as the room they had just left behind. The air was chilly, bordering on sheer coldness, and she missed the warmth of Vincent's garnet cloak that had been draped around her shoulders not all that long ago.

"Vincent, where're we going?" she asked, and Vincent twisted around, and put a finger to his lips.

She sighed, but didn't say any more, though curiosity ran through her in sudden jolts, like tiny thunderbolts coursing through her veins. She looked around, her large stormy eyes taking in every detail, almost imprinting it into her memory, despite how she saw so little credits to the poor lighting of the room.

They came to a door, the only one they'd seen down the long corridor. Vincent cautiously put his hand on the cooled door handle, as if expecting it to spontaneously combust at contact. He slowly twisted the knob, and opened the door.

Light poured into the corridor, and Vincent walked into the new room, Yuffie trailing closely behind him like his shadow. The room was also empty, but it was spotless, no cobwebs or dust at any edge of the room, and a faint scent of vanilla hovered at Yuffie's nose. It made her aware that the room had not, by any means, been abandoned. Someone had cared enough to clean the room, make sure that every inch was spotless, and not to mention that it smelled fairly nice.

Every inch of the walls were occupied by windows, excluding the two portions that had doors, the one they had just walked through, and the one directly across the room from them. The ninja crept closer to the series of windows to her left, and she gazed out of them with curiosity, the man watching her with mild interest.

Her stormy eyes scanned outside, and her voice caught in her throat. She then twisted around, and walked over to the series of windows on the opposite side. They were in the centre of… a village of sorts, one that she had never in her lifetime seen, even on her journey with AVALANCHE. There were some people walking around on the ground, and everyone wore white, nothing but white, as if they had never discovered the wonders of colour dye. Speaking of white, the town was surrounded by ice and snow, but the town itself didn't have an inch of it, none on the rooftops, nor down in the streets.

"What the hell is up with this?" she muttered, her voice a little above a whisper.

Vincent watched her as her face entertained a wide array of emotions, ranging from confusion, to annoyance, back to confusion, and to amazement. She was like an open book and it was impossible not to notice everything she felt. It couldn't have been more obvious had she been holding a neon pink sign that described every emotion she felt at any given moment.

"What is this place?" she asked, her tone filled with complete and utter amazement. Her eyes met Vincent's face, and the look in them was asking—no, demanding answers.

"I wouldn't know. I've never seen such a thing," he said, bloodstained eyes breaking away from her face and looking out the window. "It's a very odd sight indeed. Look how the snow seems to coil around the town, but never once enter it. Very… strange."

"You can say that again," she muttered, walking closer to the glass. From a certain angle, she probably would have looked like she was pressing her face against it, like an eager child.

He looked over at her once more, and just realised how much older she was from how he remembered her. She was going to be eighteen in a few months. Eighteen already. Soon the two year mark since Sephiroth would come to pass. Has it been so long already? My, how time flies by when you're drowning in your self pity.

She seemed the same, aside from those surges of sudden maturity that always seems to shock everyone. Physically she looked more mature, the dress seemed to fit her nicely, as he assumed her regular clothes did. She was much prettier, in fact, perhaps even beautiful. He had never thought her to be ugly, she looked fine before, albeit a bit awkward, but nothing compared to how she looked now, merely a late bloomer. My, how much a year could change someone.

She was still a hyperactive pest that ate away at the control of his temper, and maybe she'd always be like that. She angered him so frequently, but he still liked her to a certain extent, everyone in their little group did, for one reason or another.

She looked at him, eyebrow cocked. "What? Something in my hair?" and asked, and as she asked that question, she ran a hand through her raven hair. He hadn't realised that he'd been staring.

He didn't answer, just looked back out the window, and delved his hand into his pant pocket, letting his claw hang at his side, almost lifelessly. He was beginning to miss his old clothes, particularly his cape.

They both heard the door open, and turned towards it in unison. Inside stepped a young woman, probably only a year or two younger than Yuffie. They both watched her with blank faces, and the ninja resisted the urge to cock her eyebrow at the girl, who looked surprised to see them standing there.

"Oh, you're up, we didn't know—well, we thought you'd be out for a little longer," she said, trying very hard to smile, though the effort looked obviously forced, and as fake and plastic-like as could be.

The girl was very plain, light brown hair, fair skin, soft features, and would have been extremely boring looking, had she not had those almond shaped eyes, with striking green irises. Without those fascinating eyes, she would have been someone who could have easily faded into the crowd, and been forgotten.

"That's just great, who the hell are you, and where are we? Wait, wait, better question, why did you idiots knock us out? Could have just asked us to come along, and we would have, but _noooo_," growled Yuffie, words flying out of her mouth before she even got a chance to think about them.

"Calm down Yuffie, you're just scaring her," said Vincent, voice lowered to a whisper, and he gripped her arm loosely, as a gesture that he hoped would aid in calming her.

She froze, feeling Vincent touch her in any way was a complete shock, almost a miracle in her point of view. He was against touching in every way, and avoided it at all cost. Maybe this meant they were becoming better friends, or maybe he knew that her shock would shut her up. Either way, it worked as he'd wanted it to.

"Anyhow, where is our other companion? Red XIII is his name, he looks like a large red cat with a flame on his tail. He's rather noticeable," asked Vincent, and the girl just stared at him with wide eyes.

She didn't answer for a few minutes, and the ninja was beginning to get a little irritated, and just as she opened her mouth to tell her to spit it out, the girl spoke.

"I believe he's already up and about, though I don't really know exactly where he is. You two have to come with me. My name is Bella," she said, her words cautious, and she looked wary of the two companions.

"Why should we? What're you going to do if we don't?" asked Yuffie, crossing her arms arrogantly.

Bella froze, that response clearly unexpected. Vincent felt the urge to rub his temples as he felt a headache plough through him. It was most certainly not the best time to be starting a fight with some random citizen from a town that they hadn't even known existed.

"Well, you don't exactly have much of a choice. You don't know where you're going, and if you want to know why you're here, you'll come with me," she stated logically, and shrugged her shoulders, though there was a gleam in her eye of annoyance that was as plain as the light of day.

Yuffie sighed, and rolled her eyes, annoyed that she didn't get the response she'd expected, and wanted. However, she was even more annoyed that that the girl was looking at her like that. Who did she think she was?

"Whatever, let's go," said Yuffie, sending a cool glare to Bella, and the girl twisted around and walked out, the two companions following her.

Vincent released her arm, but remained walking at her side, crimson eyes fixed intently on the girl. He was wary about her, but she was right, they had no choice. So he'd be on his guard, well, more so than usual, and he'd be sure that nothing happened to them.

They turned and walked through numerous rooms, walked down a set of stairs, and continued to walk until they entered a room that was painted a deep emerald, with black marble floors. Would you know it, colour.

In the room there was a middle aged woman, her hair tied back into a tight ponytail, silvery blond strands that were too short to be tied back falling into her face. Her eyes were a deep brown, and her skin was as pale as the girls, although it held an olive tone to it, which suggested that she was merely sun deprived, and that her skin wasn't naturally that light.

Before the woman was Red, his fiery fur clashing with the black and emerald green of the room. The minute he realised their presence, he spun around, golden eyes flying from the gunslinger's face, to the ninja's, and back again.

"Vincent. Yuffie," was his greeting, and it was accompanied with a nod.

"Ah, good, you're awake," she said, the smile on her face slowly fading away. "You're probably wondering what you're doing here."

"Nice guess," muttered Yuffie sarcastically, looking at the woman with enough resentment that the woman looked taken aback for a moment or so.

"Now, now, no need to get angry-"

"I think we have every right to be angry, we were randomly shot in the neck with tranquilizers, and then we were taken here, and you asshats stripped us bare and put on these shit clothes instead. You took away our weapons, and even more importantly, you took my damned mastered materia. Oh yeah, I'm mad," she said, her voice reaching the point where she was shouting, and for an instant, Vincent felt amused. Although his flicker of amusement was quickly squashed as his headache became increasingly painful, and the amusement was replaced by severe annoyance.

The woman looked over at him. "Could you please calm her?"

"Afraid not, I agree with everything she just…yelled," he said, and for the second time that day, he resisted the urge to rub his temples.

She sighed. "Well all that was for logical reasons. We feared you'd resist us if we just nicely asked, which you probably would have. It was just quicker to knock you out. Your clothes were soaked, and you would have gotten hypothermia had we not changed them. We took your weapons and materia in fear that you'd go on a rampage and start harming people who got in your path."

"Whatever," growled Yuffie, more resentment for the woman filling her eyes.

"Who are you? Why bring us here?" asked Red, ignoring Yuffie's distaste for her.

"My name is Mara, and we're here because we were told to bring you here," she said simply, her words accompanied with a shrug.

"By who?" he asked, and Mara didn't answer for a long while.

"I…don't know her name. She never told it to me. She wanted to talk to…well, to you," she said, looking directly at Yuffie, who just blinked at her, taking a few minutes to register what she'd just said.

"Some freak told you guys to come get us, just so she could talk to me? Why me, and about what?" asked Yuffie, putting her hands on her hips.

"I don't know, and I wouldn't know. I never asked, and she never told."

"Well, I shouldn't disappoint her, where is she?" asked Yuffie, arrogant smile seeping onto her tanned face.

"Through the door behind me," she said, jerking her head around, and Yuffie looked over her shoulder to see an ivory door implanted into the wall, just waiting to be opened.

Yuffie went to make her way towards the door, her head cocked high, no fear or even cautiousness flying across her face. She was far too arrogant and confident for her own good. Vincent grabbed her arm, and she looked appalled, two touches in one day. There really was a god.

"Just Yuffie?" he asked, looking at the brown eyed woman, and she nodded her head robotically.

"Will she be safe? She has no weapons or materia," he asked, and Mara nodded her head with that same robotic type motion.

"Of course, there's nothing that could remotely harm her inside there."

"For your sake, you'd better hope not," he said, distrust glowing in his crimson eyes, like two well lit flames.

"Oh god, no worries Vinnie, I can take care of myself. Anything comes near me and I'll give them the old 'Hi-ya!'," she replied, with martial art movements to accompany the words as they fled her mouth.

He sighed, her words providing little comfort. For that matter, they probably made him feel more anxious. He released her arm, and she made her way across the room. She gave Red a nice pat on the head, as you would a dog, as she passed by, earning a growl of annoyance from him.

She twisted the doorknob, and walked inside, closing the door behind her. The room was black, there was no light at all, and she stood there feeling instantly irritated. This must have been some kind of a joke, there was no one here, it was dark, and it was cold. Curse them.

Just as she turned to leave and expose their joke, she saw something. A glimmer of emerald light created from nothing. It lit the room faintly, and she watched the tiny light. It resembled a firefly, albeit a tiny one. The firefly-like substance began to expand, and took a human-like shape. The human face it created began to carve out features, and the body began to develop curves.

Then it lastly developed colour other than emerald, and finally it was finished. What Yuffie saw, the creation her eyes were fixated on, shocked her. She had to close her eyes, shake her head, and look back to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. Those eyes, that face, she knew it so well.

"Aeris, what… how? Is it really… could it be?" her words were caught in her throat, and she didn't know what to say, or rather, where to start, because she had too many things she wanted to say.

The woman smiled that same smile the ninja had come to know so well, that calming, gentle smile. She nodded her head, and for a second, there were no words, they only stared at each other.

"It's been a long time Yuffie, I'm glad to see you. You've grown since…then," she said pleasantly.

"But how, how can you talk to me? You're… you're dead," asked Yuffie, struggling to get the words to escape her mouth, not a problem she had commonly had.

"This is a sacred place, these people are as pure as you get. They're unexposed to the corruption of the world. They're, hmm, how do I explain? They're almost like our helpers. This place, it's protected, the Lifestream protects them from the elements, and from outsiders in exchange for them doing their best to help us when we need it. Others can't see this town. Oh, it's difficult to explain. Do you at least somewhat understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Yeah… yeah. This is a pure place, so this is where you teleport, or whatever it is, if you have to, and we've never seen this place because it's shielded. Is that about it in a nutshell?"

"Close enough, I guess."

"I can't believe it. I've—we've missed you so much Aeris, and here you are. God… but anyway, you didn't want to talk to me just for some friendly chit-chat, right?" she asked, getting more relaxed, and she crossed her arms, a half-smile slowly forming on her lips. Aeris nodded.

"I need to give you something, and you have to have it to destroy _that_ _man. _The one that's the cause of all this. You should know, he's nothing more than a poisoned soul, but when you kill someone, you only kill the body, not the soul. The body is only a host for the soul. No tool of this world can kill a it, aside from maybe Vincent's Chaos, since he's not exactly from this world, but let's not go into that," she explained, her tone wary.

"So you're going to give me some supernatural weapon that's going to look incredibly awesome, and make other people go 'Wow!'?" she asked, eyes already glowing with sudden desire.

"Not quite. Rather, I'm going to… lend you some abilities. After he's gone, they'll fade away as if you'd never had them," she explained, and Yuffie frowned, suddenly disappointed for a moment or so.

"Oh, alright, I suppose that could be cool too," she said with a sigh.

"Yuffie… I'm sorry. I didn't want to get you involved, but it couldn't be anyone else. You were the only one close enough to get to within a fair amount of time, and one of the few I trust. You should know that neither Nanaki or Vincent could be used. Vincent has Chaos, and that just won't work, and Nanaki isn't human. I'm sorry," she said, slight sadness tinged her voice.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry? All you're doing is lending me some nifty powers," said Yuffie, bewildered.

Then came the answer to her questions as Aeris touched her cheek. Pain engulfed her, and it was like being set on fire, being electrocuted, and then being doused with acid all at once. The pain filled her insides up the rim, and poured over onto her flesh. Her body was tingling with such sudden pain, and for a moment, her screams were caught in her throat. Her eyes were what looked to be impossibly wide, and they showed with nothing but sheer, intolerable pain.

"I'm sorry Yuffie, I'm so sorry," said Aeris, and it was filled with such sincerity that no one could have stayed mad at her. Not that the extreme pain ever gave the ninja a chance to even begin to become angry with her.

Finally, the scream broke loose, and it was so loud that the people in the Kalm must have heard it. The sound echoed through the building, and she continued to scream that ear-shattering sound. It hurt so bad, and she couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't even breathe.

Vincent instantly became infuriated, concerned, and perplexed all at once, and sent a look of death towards Mara, who looked completely shocked at the new sound. It sounded like something was killing her. If that was the case, someone was surely going to pay, and It would not be a pretty sight.

Vincent bolted passed Mara, Red trailing closely behind him, and they opened the door, then darted inside with what would seem to be an impossible speed. Just as they entered, Aeris faded away, and mouthed one last apology to the ninja, though she knew that the ninja never caught it.

The sounds came to a stop when she ran out of air, and tried to breathe, though found that it hurt unimaginably. Her breaths were quick and shallow, and found that it didn't provide her with nearly enough oxygen, and her stormy eyes, glazed over with pain, rolled to the back of her head, and she began to fall.

She never hit the floor, for two arms caught her at the last instant.

Vincent held her unconscious form, and watched as her breathing instantly began to deepen, as she wasn't there to experience the pain any longer, and he was grateful for that. His dark ebon locks fell into his pale face as anxiousness ate at him. She was alive, there was no blood, and yet she screamed like someone was mutilating her. What had happened?

Red padded over to the pair, and nuzzled Yuffie's hand, which was limply hanging above him. The young woman didn't so much as twitch. He hesitated before talking, and looked over at Vincent who was staring at her, worry pinned against his face. Considering that Vincent never let his emotions become exposed, this was an odd sight indeed.

"Will she be ok?" he asked, and Vincent broke his gaze on the ninja's face to look at the crimson beast.

"I do not know. She doesn't look hurt, but by the way she was screaming…" he replied, emotionless façade flying back up almost immediately.

"She's unconscious?" asked a voice from the doorway, and Vincent's eyes flew to the source like an infuriated rabid dog.

Mara was standing there, aware of Vincent's wrath, but didn't run away like a coward. She'd said that the ninja wouldn't be hurt. Clearly she'd been wrong, and that would have been perceived as lying, and she deserved whatever she had coming to her.

"You said she wouldn't be hurt, you ignorant bitch, look what you've done," said Vincent, his voice low and dangerous.

Red watching the man curiously, Vincent rarely cursed, although his cursing was indeed justified. Even he felt the need to douse the woman in curse words, and the only thing that stopped him was the fact that Vincent was doing it in his place. His companion had been screaming bloody murder, and she was now unconscious. Yes, it was justified, although, it was hardly the woman's fault that it had happened. She had no idea what was going on, and she wasn't the one who caused it. Logic was a pain.

"I didn't know that she'd be hurt. It wasn't supposed to be that way," she said, her voice barely audible.

"I don't particularly care," he growled, and he began to make his way out of the room, but paused a few feet away from her.

"You're not to come within ten feet of her ever again, I don't care that you didn't directly cause this, I really don't. If you ever so much as touch her, I will personally see that you will regret it," those words were like ice, and she knew that he meant every word, and she backed away from the doorway.

They walked out of the room, and Vincent caught sight of Bella standing across the emerald room. She looked at him, terrified of his fury, as she must have heard his venomous words. He looked at her, bloodstained eyes still filled with ruthless anger, and she seemed to shrink under his cold, unwavering gaze.

"Show me where the closest bedrooms are," he ordered, and the moment the command left his lips, she was off, and they followed.

The closest room with a bed happened to be out the doors behind the girl, and down the corridor all the way until the end, through a pair of double doors. They entered a room that was painted cerulean, with hardwood floors. There was a single king sized bed with matching covers, and Vincent walked over to it. The moment they were in the room, the girl fled quickly.

He somehow managed to pull back the covers, without putting down Yuffie, and then place her on the bed, pulling the deep blue covers up to her chin. Red laid himself down on the floor, and watched Yuffie's unconscious form as if his life depended on it.

Vincent finally rubbed his temples, his headache breaking out into a full out migraine, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd been so stressed. He sat at the edge of the bed, and looked around the room. A window, though it was covered by matching blinds, a dresser, a nightstand next to the bed, with a lamp on it, and another door that led who-knows-where. It wasn't very… appealing.

There was a knock on the open door, and the pair looked over at it. There was Bella, all their clothes and weapons held in her arms. She didn't dare look at any of them. She kept her eyes downward, put the items on the bed, and hurried out.

He reached over the bed to his pants, and pulled out the PHS, which he immediately flipped open, and tested for the signal. It was there. He dialled in the number for Cloud's PHS, and listened to the ringing before the blond man answered.

"Yeah?" said an exhausted voice.

"We have something that you'd probably like to know."

"Oh? What?"

"Victor Morales, we believe he's the cause to all this. We found a journal at the mansion, and Hojo mentioned him, as well as his supposedly impossible plans and ideas for the Lifestream. He didn't expand on them, but it is pretty well the only thing we found that was even remotely similar to what's occurring."

"Ok, we'll ask around when we get to Icicle Inn, maybe we can get some information from the Turks. Their data banks on their computers should have something that deals with him," stated Cloud, his words accompanied with a sigh.

"There's something else that you should know-" static began to crackle in, "-Cloud, can you hear me? We were taken somewhere, a place I have never before seen in all my life, and-" cut off. The connection was broken.

He sighed, and closed the PHS, and returned it to his pants pocket.

Red looked up at him, golden eye filled with curiosity, though he didn't speak. He immediately came to the conclusion that something had interfered with the connection, and he put his head back down.

Vincent looked over at Yuffie, the ninja's face was blank, almost as if she was numbed. It seemed strange not to see something crossing over Yuffie's face, an emotion of sorts. Even while she slept, she had emotions flying over her face. Not anymore.

* * *

Cloud gripped onto the phone tightly with his free hand, Vincent's call just being cut off, and curiosity tore at his mind. What had he been saying? Where were they? Was something wrong? Questions flew through his head at a million miles a minute, and he felt an array of emotions bound together so tightly that he couldn't even begin to tell them apart. 

Snow flew into his face, and he closed his eyes tightly as they began to burn. The cold felt like acid against his flesh, but he had no choice but to ignore it. The chocobo was having a hell of a time running across the icy ground, but still somehow managed. There was snow caught in between and over its feathers, and it was beginning to compile, so that it looked like the start of a very interesting snowman…or snow-bird, if you will.

He opened his azure eyes, and they trailed to his companion's face, and she looked to be having about as fun of a time as he was. Her eyes were closed so tightly that it looked painful, and she clutched the reins firmly, and he imagined her knuckles would have been a striking white, although the gloves prohibited him from seeing himself.

He tucked the cell phone into his pocket, and grasped onto the chocobo reins as tightly as she was. Heaven forbid they should be bucked off the golden beasts, and go spilling out onto the snow kissed ground. That would be a horrid thing indeed.

In the distance, peaking through breaks between the snowflakes, he saw Icicle Inn in the distance, its shape blurry, almost too blurry to make out, but he hoped that's what it was, he refused to believe otherwise. Hope made you feel and believe many things, for better or for worst. It fed you lies, knowing you'd believe them willingly, but anything, even believing that false hope that was riddled with lies, was better than just giving up. Anything was better than just giving up.

The chocobos neared the town, and he heard Tifa sigh loudly in relief, and looked over to the brunette once again. She looked more relaxed, her eyelids opening to a thin slit, so that she could see a fair amount, and her hands were loosely holding onto the reins. She looked over at him, feeling his gaze trail along her face. She smiled faintly, looking almost pleased to finally come to the town.

The two golden birds trotted into the town, and their masters soon brought them to a halt. Both Cloud and Tifa slid off the beasts in unison, the blond man grabbing the duffle bag attached to the saddle before stepping back a few paces to look at the birds, and he slightly tilted his head.

"Both of you go find shelter somewhere, we might be a long while. You don't want to turn into bird-sicles, eh?" said Cloud grinning, and the birds looked as if they understood every word he'd said, and they trotted off into the town.

Tifa looked amused and amazed all at once. Every time she saw it happen, she just couldn't believe it. It looked as if chocobos really weren't as idiotic as they had first appeared to be. A shocking realisation indeed.

"Where are we going to go?" asking Tifa, and Cloud was silent for a few moments, as if pondering her question thoroughly.

"We'd better check into the Inn, maybe the clerk'll tell us if they've seen the Turks roaming about," said Cloud with a shrug, and Tifa nodded her head in agreement.

They walked through the town, and Tifa pulled her winter jacket tighter around her, trying to drive away the cold, although the attempt was futile. The cold would never go away, never leave. It wasn't just physically either, she was cold… everywhere. Her mind was frozen and numbed from so many horrid memories. There was death… so much death… unrequited emotions… so much more death. Why did her memories feel so jumbled?

She shook her head so hard that had Cloud been looking at her, he might have been worried about her getting whiplash. She didn't want to think of her past, not now. She'd have to come to terms with it, she knew that, but… but, not now.

She was so lost in her thoughts, she had succumbed to her memories, despite her desperateness to avoid them at all costs for the time being, and her eyes became glazed over. She was oblivious to everything around her, and ignored it as the pin needles of cold on hovered along her exposed flesh, as her watered down hair beginning to freeze over into tiny icicles, and hung in her pale face.

She hit ice, and she slipped forward, coming back to herself instantly, and temporarily forgetting her thoughts. She then grabbed onto the nearest things so not to fall flat on her behind. Her right hand caught Cloud's shoulder, while the other gripped onto the wall. She panted, the surprise catching the breath right out of her, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on calming herself, and her heartbeat, which was going a million miles a minute. Cloud watched the woman inquisitively, but said nothing.

Tifa opened her russet eyes once more, and looked into his bewildered face. She turned away, releasing her tight grip on his shoulder, and letting both of her hands fall back limply to her side. She looked back up at him again, trying to keep her face neutral and emotionless, though that trait was not something she had mastered in the least. Memories came back to her, things about Cloud, and... not her. The feelings that she kept locked inside broke free, and there she was, vulnerable and pained. She looked to the ground, refusing to let him see, but he did, though it wasn't a good enough look for him understand what he'd seen. He didn't comprehend that what he saw was everything she was, everything that she felt, and everything she tried to hide.

"Hey, Tifa, everything ok?" he asked, his voice soft, gentle, and she nodded her head robotically, but didn't dare look at him. She couldn't, she couldn't let him see. She wasn't ready yet.

"I'm fine, let's go," she said, her voice cold and hard as she forced back everything, and forced herself to remain neutral, forbidding herself to do anything else.

She began to walk forward, arms crossing against her chest in a motion that was more for protection than for warmth. The vulnerability was still there, she was defenceless, and being vulnerable made her feel weak. If anything, she wasn't weak, she refused to be weak. Never again.

Cloud may act like a dunderhead from time to time, and can be oblivious to most things around him even more often, but he knew that something was wrong with his comrade, and he couldn't help but be anxious for her. The way she suddenly became cold, and that odd look filled with things he never got a chance to read. It bothered him, but he dared not pursue the subject, the last thing he needed was an argument with her. This wasn't the best of days to be arguing.

He dug his hands into his pockets, feeling the PHS' form through his leather gloves, and he began to trail behind her, watching her as she walked before him. He could have easily quickened the pace and closed the gap between him, but he didn't. She looked like she needed a little time to herself, and he could at least give her that much.

Tifa ignored the plaguing thoughts that returned to her as soon as she had walked off, her neutral façade crumbling in little time. She refused to think about it again, but ignoring them was just as bad as actually listening to the persistent thoughts. She felt… exhausted, despite how most of their journey had been via chocobo, but it wasn't a physical type of exhaustion, it was emotionally. She had forgotten how draining those types of memories and thoughts could be. She hadn't recently had much time to think about much of anything, they'd been busy as can be, but now…

She shook her head hard again, and set her mind on finding the Inn. If she concentrated on something else, she could ignore them. Maybe that would be the best thing to do.

She looked around the town, which was pretty well decorated in white, until she caught sight of a huge sign that stood out among the sheer whiteness of the snow. It read 'Inn' and her insides did a back flip of happiness. The Inn was bound to be warm, and that's just what she wanted, warmth.

She walked inside the building, and was instantly bombarded with the warmth she'd wanted. She paused, feeling it as it chased away all the cold, or at least, the cold that she felt physically. Cloud walked in behind her, and moved to her side, and the pair made their way up to the desk. There a teenage boy sat reading a book intently, glasses fallen to the tip of his nose.

Cloud made a sound at the back of his throat to grab the boy's attention, and he looked up instantly, surprised by their presence. He turned to book over, and set it down gently so not to lose his page. Cloud cared to notice that wore a golden name tag, and the name indented into it was Eric.

"Sorry. Checking in? One room, one bed?" he asked, tapping his fingers impatiently on the counter, and Cloud blinked at him.

"One room, two beds," he stated, and the boy looked at Tifa for a second or two, as if sizing her up, and then looked back at Cloud, his hazel eyes blank.

"Alright then," Eric said with a shrug, then turned around and grabbed a key off the hook, and handed it to the blond man, who then handed him a pile of gil in turn.

"Pleasure doing business with you," muttered the boy unenthusiastically, flipping back over to book, and returning to his reading.

Cloud rolled his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"What?" said the boy, clearly irritated at having been interrupted once again.

"Have you seen a group of Turks around here recently? Maybe accompanied by a robotic cat?" asked Cloud, and the boy visibly twitched.

"Sadly, yes. They're not here right now, but they checked in a while ago. I don't know where they went, so don't bother asking," he said, his tone even more irritable, and Cloud resisted the urge to smack him upside the head.

Cloud didn't bother to say anything more, he just went upstairs, tossed the duffle bag into their room, barely giving it a glance, and returned back to the lobby where his companion waited. Cloud sent the boy a deadly look, before he exited the Inn, Tifa trailing closely behind him as his second shadow.

If he were a Turk, where would he be? Certainly not here, stupid question. If he were Reno, where would he be? Any local bar. Cloud tried to think of any other place where the redhead might reside for a few hours, but no other place could come to mind.

He looked down the street, where, if his memory served him right, a bar would be. He walked down the streets, occasionally looking over at his shoulder at the silent femme fighter, who was doing all she could to avoid his gaze. He sighed, rubbed the back of his neck, but didn't dare break the veil of silence that had fallen upon them.

He stopped as he found what he was looking for, the sign was frozen over with a thick sheet of ice, but he knew that this was the place, or it had better be.

"I'm getting tired of going into bars," muttered Tifa, shattering the silence with ease.

"What about yours?" he asked, faint grin coming upon his face.

"It doesn't apply," she retorted, and he held back a laugh of faint amusement.

He hadn't laughed out of sheer amusement in what felt to be forever, it seemed that there just wasn't much to laugh about anymore. Happiness was a rare thing now-a-days, and when you had it, you had to grip onto it, and hold it as tightly as you could, because once it leaves, it's very hard to get it to return.

* * *

I think this is one of my longer chapters so far. I preferred the first part, with Vincent and Yuffie, far more than the one with Cloud and Tifa. 

As per usual, I must give thanks to all who reviewed that last chapter, because it's really awesome.

I also think everyone should know that I don't particularly like the ruler break... thing, but my '-' thingamabobber doesn't seem to work any longer. Saddening. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong ;.; Hmn, who'd have known.

And, I mustn't forget to mention that constructive criticism is always appreciated (which I must thank Mistress Delavaire for, hehe)


	7. Misinterpreted Meanings

Disclaimer – Prologue

I'm so awesome at updating I can hardly help it. But really, clearly I'm not good at balancing my school work, social life, and working on both my original story and this fanfiction. I'm going to have to work on that, heh.

I had some trouble trying to get across what I wanted to get across at some parts, sorry if some of it is rather… messed up, heh.

**Pardon Me by Incubus**  
Pardon me while I burst into flames  
I've had enough of the world and its people's mindless games  
So pardon me while I burn and rise above the flame  
Pardon me, pardon me. They'll never be the same

Chapter 6 – Misinterpreted Meanings

* * *

"What do you mean they're not dead?" shouted a voice, his jade eyes alit in an emerald fire, and they both backed away a few paces. 

"It's not our fault, it wasn't our job to take care of them. So, you know, stop freaking out at us," said Marissa, forced smile occupying her face while she stared at Hector, his muscles knotted over in sheer frustration.

"Shut up, Marissa. Where is Sally?" he growled, fiery gaze burning into her face.

"Outside the room," she replied, hands on her hips. Her lips curled into a pout, and she was offended by the demand to stop talking.

"Well stop staring at me like an idiot, with that blank look, and go get her. God, must I draw everything out for you in crayon?" he asked, and Marissa twitched, but said nothing in fear of his wrath.

She walked over to the door, pulled it open, and poked her head out, calling for the redheaded woman. Taber didn't bother to turn around and watch her, he just stared at the disgruntled Hector, the control of his temper shattered into millions of pieces, and the anger ablaze. An uncontrollable wildfire. That temper of his would be his downfall, Taber knew it, he had seen it so many times during his life… his first life, that is, if this even counted as a second life.

He was more like a prisoner in this body, a caged soul, boxed in by walls of bones and flesh. His heart beat, he slept, he ate, he breathed, but he wasn't exact what he considered to be _living_. He had stolen this body in hopes that he could relive his life, and also so he could escape the darkness and the cold that he had resided in outside the Lifestream when he was forced out. Outside of the Lifestream was like being trapped in a sort of Limbo, you were neither truly living, nor were you truly dead. You just were. A figure suspended in a cold, dark land, and you were alone. You could see others, half-dead and alive alike, but you couldn't speak, you couldn't remember how. So you wandered, and prayed to find an escape.

Escape from that cold wasteland was overtaking another's body. With a body, you could live… but to get a body you had to kick out someone's soul. One body can't harbour two souls, so you had to be the stronger being.

So he had taken a body, in hopes for his new life, for a better life than the first one he'd had. He hadn't expected this to happen, to become a prisoner to this body… to this man. Everything he did now, every horrible thing he was doing was not even of his own free will anymore.

He could kill himself, right? He couldn't go to Lifestream, it wasn't suitable now. He would feel life around him, feel real bodies as they moved, lived life the way he feared he'd never be able to again, but that didn't mean he had to steal a body away. But, he doubted that Hector would allow him to just kill himself and let his soul wander around like an idiot, he was too valuable to him now. He had proven himself worthy, and Hector wasn't going to give up that kind of skill for anything. Hector controlled him now, so whatever he wanted, he had to do. He was a slave to his will.

A slave. He never thought he'd end up in that position, but here he was. It infuriated him, but he had… no choice. He had no choice in the world. His freedom had been stolen without a second thought.

He honestly just wanted to go back to Lifestream, it had forgiven him for everything he had done wrong, as surprising as it was. It was warm there, he had been safe. It was only after he'd been sent to Lifestream that he realised how much he had truly messed everything up in his life. He had promised to himself that he would never do anything like that again.

That promise had been instantly shattered the moment he stole a body and was summoned by Hector.

He disbanded the pitiful angst he was feeling when heard another set of feet walk into the room, and he peaked over his shoulder to be struck with the sight of vibrant red hair. It was so bright, almost unnatural, and he looked away, finding an immediate distaste to it.

"How in god's name did you screw it up? It wasn't ever a hard job," muttered Hector, staring daggers into the woman's fair face.

"Yeah, yeah, bullshit. If it was easy, you'd have done it yourself. You know damn well that when you pretty much _force_ me to kill someone that I get a sort of bloodlust. It's hard to rationalize and plan things out when you're like that, dammit," she snapped, her temper already fired up, and Hector rolled his eyes.

"Don't be snappy with me wench. Perhaps I underestimated them, and they need a person with a higher skill to get rid of them. There's also the matter of Chaos, the ninja, and the other beast. Taber, you attend to them, don't kill either Chaos or the ninja, I don't particularly care what you do with Hojo's other experiment, the red beast, but bring the other two to me alive."

"Fine," replied Taber, his voice stripped of all and every emotion.

"Marissa, you take care of the swordsman and the femme fighter, be sure that they're dead. We don't want them getting away like last time," he said, and glared at the redhead coolly.

Both Taber and Marissa left without another word, slipping out the room, and closing the door without making a noise. Hector sighed and took a seat on his obsidian padded chair, and let himself become overtaken in thought. There was a silence for a while, before the redhead spoke, shattering the silence, and jolting Hector back into his proper mind.

Sally ignored the look. "What about the other group? The pilot, and the—"

"Someone's already on it, and I'm sure they're more dependable than you," he snapped, and Sally gritted her teeth with annoyance.

"One little mishap, and suddenly I'm treated like the village idiot. Everyone makes mistakes—" she was cut off again.

"You don't seem to understand Sally, we can't afford _any_ mistakes. Stop your ignorant babbling, and get out. I need to think."

She sent him a look filled with the utmost distaste and absolute hatred, though he didn't seem to catch it. If he did, whatever he may have been feeling about it never betrayed the neutral expression planted on his face. She didn't dare stay any longer, and she exited the room, leaving the distraught man to his own jumbled and toxic thoughts.

* * *

She still slept. It had been… hours. She looked almost in a comatose state, and, well, he didn't know what to do about it. He couldn't force her to regain consciousness, although he wished he could. 

Vincent sat down on the ground next to the bed, on the opposite side of the one that Red was lying on. He glanced upward out the window, and watched the sky, painted with clashing colours, dark blue, violet, hot pink. Dawn had finally broken through, the sun slipping over the horizon, and dousing anything exposed in its golden rays. He had sat there all night, watching, waiting, as had Red. They were both worried about the state of their friend, but they never once discussed it, in fact, no conversation at all had developed during the long hours of waiting. The gunslinger was never one for conversation anyway.

He let himself relax against the wall, coming to conclusion that when she woke up he'd know it without having to watch her like a hawk. He closed his eyes, though he had no intent to go to sleep, and he let his mind roam. He felt Chaos wander around inside him, his presence much more noticeable than any of the other demons that resided inside his head. He hadn't spoken much in past few months, and though Vincent wondered, he didn't ask the creature about it. Why jinx it? If he was lucky Chaos would stop talking for the rest of eternity. Besides, it was rare that he ever said anything useful. Usually all he did was provoke him, taunt him, and force certain hurtful memories to return. Particularly memories of his dear Lucrecia.

_Lucrecia._

He hadn't thought of her through out the past few days, which was a change from when her memory persisted him, and forced him to remember her every damned day. He tried to avoid it like the plague, though avoiding rarely worked. He didn't particularly like remembering his past, but it was a funny thing, she was both the worst and the best part of it. The worst, and the best, it contradicted itself, but it was more true than he cared to admit.

She… never loved him. He loved her with all his heart, but it was never requited, not really. Some say that you can't truly fall in love with someone unless they at least somewhat feel the same thing for you. He proved that theory wrong, because never, not once, had she spoken those words, or even suggested them. They were close friends, he supposed, and though he wanted more, she wasn't willing to give it.

She loved Hojo, and only him. He saw them together that day, when he was still a Turk, when he was still normal, still _human_, and still held somewhat of a life. He had almost wished that he had never seen them, because ignorance truly was bliss. That was a stupid thing to wish, because at least now he knew that truth, and knew that she could _never_ love him.

He loved her, and at first he was angry, as well as depressed, but those emotions faded away when he came to the conclusion that she was happy. As long as she was happy, he didn't mind, because her happiness was all he wanted, even if it wasn't with him.

It could have never been with him.

He looked down at his hand and claw, limp atop his lap. Why did her memories always suck him in? They hurt so much. He still cared about her, even after all this time. Would he be able to let her go?

He rubbed his right eye with his hand, and then tipped back his head to balance against the wall. He rolled his eyes upward at the cerulean ceiling, and stared at it, despite how there was really nothing interesting about it. The room was finally bathed in the early morning glow, and though Vincent had never really been partial to the sun, he didn't bother to close the blinds that he had opened during the night.

He heard a groan, and he rolled his eyes over to his right to see Yuffie, twisting around on the bed. She sat up, and gasped as she opened her eyes, only to find the room drenched in morning light. Her pupils coiled into two nearly impossibly small marbles, and she bowed her head, and shut her eyes tightly.

"For the love of materia, close the damned blinds," she growled, and Vincent stood up in one smooth motion, and walked over to the window, doing her bidding.

Red walked up to the bed, and moved up onto his hind legs, putting his front paws onto the bed to get a better look at his awakened companion.

As soon as the light was chased away, she opened her eyes again, the pupils dilating back to their normal size. She looked around the room, puzzled about where she was, and she didn't say anything for a long time.

She finally felt two sets of gazes on her face, and looked over to Red, his golden orb watching her intently, as if expecting something bad to occur, and then she looked over at Vincent, whose bloodstained eyes were also fixed intently on her.

She felt irritated, but didn't really feel like talking. A new concept for her. She felt very… strange, if that was the right word for it. There was something inside her, she could feel it, and it seemed to have made itself at home. It felt both warm and cold, sharp and dull, soft and hard. It felt like everything all at once, and Yuffie's brain seemed to have trouble comprehending it. How can something feel like everything? Wouldn't that contradict itself entirely?

She felt it crawling around deep within her, and she wanted to rip it out, she knew it wasn't supposed to be there, her body knew that, her mind did as well. Her whole being screamed to make it go away, it was an invader. It made her so uncomfortable that it nearly felt like pain. It was a power of sorts that wasn't meant to be inside her.

_It wasn't supposed to be there._

She felt sick, nauseated, and she tried to ignore it, but she couldn't. She couldn't ignore it edge around inside her, infecting her. It was supposed to help them kill _him_, but why did it feel so… so bad?

"Yuffie?" Red said, voice quiet, and the ninja looked at him, her face twisted in some sort of unreadable emotion.

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?" he asked, and she nodded her head almost instantly.

"What happened to you?" asked Vincent, and the ninja tore her gaze away from Red, and to the gunslinger, who was waiting intently for her answer.

She didn't answer for a long time, and Vincent almost wondered if she was going to answer. Her words began to leave her mouth, and they were careful, almost cautious. He felt a sort of discomfort when she spoke like that.

"I… don't want to talk about right now. I feel like grossness, do you know where a shower is?" she asked, and Vincent paused.

Red walked over to the unused door, and pulled it open, and there was a bathroom. He suspected it was either that or a closet. What a guess, what a guess.

Yuffie pushed away the cerulean covers, damp from sweat, and she slid off the bed, feeling grosser than ever as she noticed the moisture on her dress. The ninja grabbed her usual clothes selection that lay at the foot of the bed, and she made her way into the bathroom.

She closed the door, and automatically locked it. It wasn't that she distrusted any of them, it was just something she did out of habit. She sighed, and put the garments on the counter, in between two sinks, and she walked over to the sink closest to the door. She gripped onto its ivory sides tightly, and started up into the mirror. Her hair was greasy, her skin was paler than usual, her eyes looked dull, lifeless. She looked like crap.

She turned around to the matching ivory bathtub and shower, and finally clued in that the entire room was going to be that same off white shade. The walls, the floor, the counters, the shower curtain. What was with these people and the colour white? White wasn't a bad colour, but they overused it to the point where she was beginning to dislike it.

Yuffie pushed back the shower curtain, and turned on the water, hitting the latch on the bathtub faucet so that the water was redirected to the showerhead. She pulled back the shower curtain halfway, and spun around, kneeling over to open up the cupboard under the sinks, only to find, surprise, ivory towels.

The ninja pulled two out, and put them on the counter atop her clothing, and she began to strip of her dress and undergarments, and tossed them on the floor. None of that stuff was hers. Actually, now that she thought of it, the prospect of someone else putting on undergarments that weren't hers on her naked form was quite the disturbing thought. She couldn't help but feel completely and utterly disgusted, if not slightly violated.

She visibly shivered, and forced away the thought, before climbing into the shower. She closed the curtain, and let the water hit her in the face. The water, which was bordering on being too hot, trailed down her body.

As soon as she felt clean, she shut off the water, and opened up the curtains. The giant mirror was already foggy, and she stepped out of the bathtub/shower. However, she didn't get a good enough balance, and her feet were drenched, which led to her slipping.

She banged up against the counter, and bit back a shriek of surprise. She caught onto the edge of the counter and regained her balance, before muttering a few curses.

"Yuffie are you alright?" asked a voice, Reds. She didn't answer at first, and resisted the urge to snap at him.

"Fine," she muttered, almost inaudibly to the garnet beast.

She rubbed her face, and then looked up into the fogged up mirror. She could see herself, a blurred image of herself anyway. She could see the general outline of her figure, the paler-than-usual colour of her skin, the raven colour of her hair.

"What the hell's wrong with me? I don't feel any damned special abilities. All I feel is that… that… _thing_," she said, her voice so quiet that she could barely hear her own words as they trailed passed her lips. "What did she do to me?"

She sighed, and then looked down at the towels, and clothes, before realising that she was dripping onto the floor. She quickly dried herself, and then put on all of her own clothes, and she instantly felt more comfortable, more at home, if you will.

She walked out of the bathroom, damp hair falling into her face, and her dulled, cloudy eyes met Vincent's bloodstained ones.

"So, now what?" asked the ninja, and Vincent stared at her for a few moments.

"Are you going to tell us what happened? I believe we have a right to know," said Vincent, and Red nodded his head in agreement, but didn't speak.

"I said I didn't want to talk about it, god, don't you listen?" she snapped, her voice cool, and as sharp as a blade.

"I listen perfectly well, but I want to know. I don't particularly care if you want to talk about it or not, we need to know what occurred," he said, crossing his arms tightly against his chest.

"Well I don't really care if you want to know or not, I'll tell you when I feel like it," she retorted, a hint of anger poisoning her voice.

"Yuffie, Vincent's right, you know. You have tell us what happened in there," said Red, his golden eye fixated on her face.

"Holy shit, why don't you two just leave me alone," she said, her voice a hint away from full out yelling.

"What is wrong with you?" asked Vincent, who reached over and grabbed her arm just as she was about to make her escape towards the door that exited the room.

"I don't fucking know what's wrong with me. How do you like that? Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm not even completely sure of what happened in the room, I don't know what she did to me, I don't know, I just don't fuckin' know. I just want to be left alone!" she said, and her voice finally broke out into a full scream.

"Calm down Yuffie, please, just tell us what happened," said Vincent, his voice calm as it always was.

"Holy shit, Vincent! You're so damned persistent. You can't just give me a few fuckin' hours to pull myself together, can you?" she yelled, pulling away her arm violently, and looked as if she was going to lash out at the gunslinger.

"We don't _have_ the kind of time to be idly wandering around," he retorted, and Yuffie looked like she was going to lose all control of her temper, and just take her conformer, and attack him.

"I…wow, whatever. I saw Aeris in that room, and she said she was going to lend me something that she said that it would help us kill Victor's soul or whatever his name was, and she said she was sorry, and then she touched me and… it hurt so bad, and here I am. It's fuckin' inside me, and I feel it, and I hate it. I hate it so much, because it isn't supposed to be there, and it's so tormenting. I hate the way it feels, how it moves inside me, and makes me feel it," she said, and her anger broke out into a sort of twisted depression. "It makes me feel sick to feel it inside me."

She had sunk to her knees by that time, and her eyes had fallen from Vincent's face, to the ground. Vincent walked over to her cautiously, and Red watched the pair with curiosity, observing to see what Vincent would do.

He kneeled in front of her, but didn't touch her. She forced herself to look up at him, despite how much her mind screamed for her to ignore him. Their eyes met, crimson and slate, and neither of them spoke for a long while.

"Is this what Chaos feels like?" she asked, her voice quiet, although curious.

He nodded his head. "Something similar to that, I suppose."

"Do you get used to it?"

"Not completely, no."

"Do you think she gave me something like Chaos?"

"Doubtful. Chaos is… something along the lines of pure darkness, and I believe that he was created by something other than Lifestream and whatnot."

"Like what?" she asked, tilting her head.

"I… do not know."

Another pause. She studied his face, porcelain, sun deprived skin, crimson eyes, handsome features, and she briefly wondered what he looked like before Hojo, and his experiments.

"I hate it so much Vincent, I want it to go away, make it go away," her request was childish, and she knew that, but she was beyond the point of caring.

"I don't know how."

"Even if you did, would you bother doing it?" she asked, and Vincent felt surprised that she'd even ask such a thing.

"Of course," he replied without hesitation, and she seemed satisfied for a few moments.

"Even if it meant that we wouldn't have another way to get rid of that nut job?"

Vincent never got a chance to answer, because Red decided that the perfect moment to ask his question.

"What are we going to do now?" he asked, padding towards them.

The two people stood up, and Yuffie looked down at him, mischievousness slowly filling back into her eyes, and there was a smile, albeit a faint one, but a smile nonetheless. She had finally mildly pulled herself together, which Red was pleased to see.

He didn't like watching her crumble like that, she was a strong young woman… but even the strongest of people fall apart sometime, because no one is immune to everything, every pain, every heartbreak, every failed effort. There always comes a point where you just want to let yourself fall, and you couldn't blame someone for that. They're just human after all, only human.

That thing she had to experience, being the only one that was able to house that… _power_ inside her. She had to go through more pain in that one instant than most people would go through in their whole lifetime. Then she felt it invade her, and she couldn't do anything about it. It was almost like a supernatural rape. She had no choice, she just had to deal with it. She had already dealt with more than any teenager should have had to deal with, and that right there, that was the straw that broke the camels back, as they say. It was no wonder that she fell apart for a moment there. He would have too.

"Perhaps it would be best if we went to Icicle Inn. Cloud and Tifa should be there by now, and if we start now, we can be there by tonight, at most, assuming we can somehow obtain golden chocobos, and also assuming that the weather hasn't gotten worst, and that the snow hadn't deepened very much since we were out there," he said, somehow managing to say most of that in one breath.

"Well, Vinnie-boy, let's assume that all of those assumptions were wrong, does that mean we're fucked?" she asked, and Vincent cocked an eyebrow.

"Pretty much, yes," he said, and Yuffie snickered.

"Perfect, because I'm sure we're going to find _soooo_ many chocobos here, and I'm sure that the snow stopped just for us," she retorted sarcastically, with actions to exaggerate her negative words.

Red ignored her commentary. "Perhaps we should stop at Rocket Town to see Barret and Cid, as the PHS' aren't working very well, and they may need something."

Yuffie snickered. "Well that's just too damned bad for them, now isn't it? And anyway, like Vinnie said, we don't really have all that much time, so you know, no point in stopping there unless we have to, right?"

"Yuffie does have a point, so no, I don't think we should. They're clever, they can manage on their own," replied Vincent, and Red nodded his head.

"Clever, clever?" she laughed. "They have the IQ of a retarded fly."

Vincent shook his head, although mildly amused at the mockery.

"Shall we?" asked Vincent, nodding towards the door.

The trio grabbed their armour and weapons, and headed out the door. They returned to the room where they had first seen Mara, and low and behold, there were people there. Four of them, to be exact, two males that none of them had ever seen before, as well as Mara and Bella.

Bella was sitting on the floor against the wall, talking to Mara softly about something or other. As she noticed the trio walk in, in unison, her jaw snapped shut, and she stood up, watching them warily. The two men glared at the trio, and stood up as tall as their 6'5, bulky figures would allow, attempting to use their sizes to intimidate them. It didn't work.

"Oh, you're ok?" asked Mara, fake smile coming upon her face, and Yuffie nodded her head, no longer holding any resentment towards the woman.

"Mara, we are leaving. Do you have any chocobos? Preferably gold," asked Vincent, always calm, always cool, and Mara automatically nodded her head.

"We found yours at dusk yesterday, so clearly you can have them back. We also have something to give you to help your on your little, uh, journey," said Mara, plastic smile fading away.

She nodded towards Bella, who quickly walked across the room, passed the small group, and out the door. There was a moment of awkward silence before someone decided that awkward conversation was better than awkward silence.

"So… those two guys over there. What are their names? Bane, and Jaws? Well they look awfully… nice," said Yuffie, nodding her head as she spoke.

Mara smiled, this time it was real, and she choked back a laugh. Both the men stared at the ninja blankly, but didn't bother to introduce themselves.

Bella walked back into the room, holding a pile of clothes and such so high that she couldn't even see over them. Mara smiled once more, and shook her head as Bella nearly tripped over her own feet numerous times.

"Bella, hand them the clothing will you?" she asked, and the girl twisted towards the three comrades.

She walked up to Yuffie, who she was less afraid of than Vincent, and placed the clothing at her feet, before hurriedly walking back towards Mara, 'Bane', and 'Jaws'. Yuffie leaned over and picked up one article. She held it out before her, and allowed it to unfold on its own. It was a large olive coloured parka, which looked as if it would be able to fit her decently.

She went back to rummage through clothing and found articles that would fit her, some for Vincent, and surprisingly, some for Red. Even more surprisingly, most of these were in colours other than white, aside from Red's clothing.

"You guys actually have things that aren't white?" she asked rhetorically, holding back out the olive green coat with black fur lining.

She smiled and answered all the same. "Yes we do, although we rarely wear it. White is a pure colour, and that's what we find is appropriate to wear."

"I guess that makes sense. This is a holy ground or whatever the hell it was that Aeris called it," she muttered, not even bothering to look at Mara.

"Aeris?" she asked, bewilderment nearly radiating off her.

Yuffie finally put down the coat and looked at the woman.

"The woman you talked to, you know, you didn't know her name. Do you get what I'm talking about?" explained Yuffie, and the woman nodded her head, finally clueing in.

"Mara, I apologize for verbally attacking, I realise it wasn't your fault…" said Vincent finally, and Mara smiled faintly.

"I understand why you did it. You were protective of her, it only makes sense to protect the people you care for," she said, dark brown eyes glazed over with kindness.

"Aw, Vinnie? I didn't know you liked me like that. Not that I can blame you, I am one sexy ninja," said Yuffie, and Vincent coughed.

His words were caught in his throat for a moment.

"I believe she means friendship," he said slowly, and the ninja snickered.

"Yeah, yeah, you just keep lying to yourself Vinnie. We all know that you secretly adore me with all your heart," she said, and winkled exaggeratedly at him.

He resisted a half-smile, and just snickered faintly, almost inaudibly, and Yuffie grinned, pleased with herself.

"We'd better be going, let us be off. Good bye Mara, thank you for everything you've done to help us. We appreciate it," said Red, his tail flicking back and forth rhythmically.

"Let Bella show you out," she said, and nodded to Bella, who automatically did what she was told.

Mara watched as they were led out of the room, and she chuckled softly to herself. 'Jaws' looked over at her curiously, and cocked an eyebrow. She noticed his gaze, and look over at him. Her rich brown eyes were glittering with a sort of twisted amusement.

"It's a funny thing, people are so oblivious to what they feel. I'm not sure why that is," she muttered, staring at him with that all-knowing gaze. "I never meant friendship."

* * *

Thanks muchly to all who reviewed before, and power to those who still bother to read this despite my completely random updates. 

Constructive criticism is definitely always welcome X3


	8. Through Frayed Pages

Disclaimer – Prologue

My, this was a difficult chapter to write. I'm still trying to get the hang of the fight scenes, heh. I haven't done too many of them, if you hadn't noticed XD. Please tell me if there's something that I could add or change that would increase the effectiveness of them.

**Miracle – Vertical Horizon**  
Is there a trace,  
Inside her face,  
Of a lonely miracle?  
And so you wait,  
And lie awake,  
For a lonely miracle

Chapter 7 – Through Frayed Pages

* * *

The trio quietly waltzed through the town, both Yuffie and Vincent holding the reins to their golden birds, Red trailing not far behind them. The ninja wore her olive and obsidian parka, as well as her other articles of winter clothing that they had graced her with. All of it fit her with a sheer perfection, as if it had been tailor made especially for her, clinging to her like a glove. 

Red also wore his snow equipment, and the moment that Yuffie caught sight of it, she began to laugh hysterically, as if it were the funniest sight in the world. Well, if it wasn't the funniest, it sure ranked top ten, because seeing him pad around in a puffy, white jacket, with little matching mittens on his paws was something that would have looked entertaining to anyone.

Vincent, on the other hand, didn't even bother to put on his jacket, insisting that he wouldn't be cold, despite Yuffie's persistent badgering which were insisting the contrary. In the end, Vincent's stubbornness won over Yuffie's hassling, something of which the ninja was not at all pleased about. She'd get her revenge… one day. Oh yes.

The sight of the three beings was one that drew much attention, people stopped in the streets to see the ninja dressed in green with a giant weapon, the pale, dangerous looking man, and the red beast that followed closely. This sight was a change from their norm, for most of them looked similar, all dressed in white, and soft, innocent, almost childlike facial features, despite their varying ages. Seeing a trio that looked entirely different from them was indeed awe-inspiring.

They came to the borders of the town, causing the ninja to pause in her tracks, and glanced over her shoulder at the near silent town. The only sounds were the quiet voices of the towns people, conversing happily, and the winter breeze outside the borders. After she left, would she never see that place again? Would it be lost from her eyes once more? Would she forget about it, as if it had been erased from her memory?

She didn't want to leave, not that she would ever admit that. She would just snort to herself, and mutter good riddance… but it wasn't true. She would proclaim that she hated the place, that it was boring, too peaceful for her taste, but that also wasn't true. It wasn't true in the least. She liked its purity, its innocence, how everyone seemed to care about each other to a certain extent. Things weren't like that anymore. People killed each other just to get ahead, uncaring of all the lives they destroyed in the process.

What she liked most of all was that she might have been able to see Aeris again. She missed the damned flower girl, she'd been so kind, so gentle. Everything that Yuffie secretly admired, but knew she could never be. She was never the gentle kind. Rough and tumble was more appropriate for her. She was active, energetic, sarcastic, aggressive… nothing at all like a sweet, gentle, and compassionate flower girl, though sometimes she wished otherwise.

It's not so much that she disliked who she was… well, that's a lie, yes she did dislike who she was. Of course, she hid that under her arrogance and sarcasm, as she did most other things. If you made people believe that you believed you were the best, then they couldn't see the insecurity underneath. Insecurity was never something she felt comfortable showing. She knew from experience that people sought out insecurities, and they used them to torment you as best they could, just so they could get the sick pleasure of seeing you become pained. Arrogance usually saved you from that.

She looked back at Vincent and Red on their chocobo, both of which were watching her intently, but never bothered to say anything to jolt her out of her thoughts. She cleared her throat, and then raised herself onto the chocobo, giving it a little tap that told it to continue moving.

The chocobo paused as they reached the edge of the town, but Yuffie poked it in the back of the neck, ignoring the desire to give the town one final look of longing. The two birds walked out of the town, and began to work their way through the snowdrifts.

The ninja finally allowed herself to look over her shoulder, but she saw nothing. The town, the buildings, the people, they were gone, as if it had vanished in thin air. In its place was nothing but seemingly endless fields of snow. She felt surprised, although she had expected that it would happen, she was told it would. It was one thing being told it, and another actually seeing it.

She sighed, and then kicked the chocobo with the back of her heel, forcing it to break out into a run, although its speed was considerably slower than it usually was. That also was to be expected, the snow was too deep for anything to go at a decent pace. The two birds struggled through it, giving an occasionally wark every now and then, but their masters did nothing to stop their discomfort for they had no choice, they were in the middle of nowhere once again.

Yuffie sighed, her boredom suddenly forcing her to notice the invading power in her gut. She growled to herself, and considered punching herself, although she reasoned against it. Maybe if she found something to occupy her mind once more, she could ignore the plaguing feeling. At least it wasn't as bad as it had been at first, it seemed to have settled itself rather nicely, allowing her to remotely get used to it… sort of, although she still despised it, and wanted it out. Now. She'd have it out in time, though, eh? Patience was a virtue, right? Well, fuck that, that was one good quality she was severely lacking.

She then noticed the uncomfortable feeling of the journal still in the back pocket of her shorts, and placed her hands down the back of her puffy snow pants, to the shorts underneath, and pulled it out. She held it out before her, loosely holding the reins with one gloved hand.

She flipped through the book carelessly, watching to see if anything interesting would come up, like maybe something about Vincent or something. She quickly skimmed through numerous pages, and came to one conclusion; Hojo was a boring guy. He lived and breathed science, how frigin dull. No one cared, really.

Finally, she came to something that piqued her interest, Vincent's name catching her eye, as well as Lucrecia's not too far after. Her eyes started at the top of the page, and read each word slowly, as if memorizing it and imprinting it to the back of her mind. If this was blackmail, she would damn well be using it.

_Of course I see the way he looks at her, Mister Vincent Valentine. He thinks I'm too wrapped up in my own work to notice such a thing, or that I'm just a complete, as well as oblivious, that moron. He's a fool if he truly thinks I don't notice. I could have been blind and a mile away, and I still would have noticed that look of… disgusting adoration on his face. I can't imagine why he adores her so much anyway, always fawning over her, trying to get close and such. I think it's foolish, she's not that appealing._

_That's not saying that she's not a pretty woman, she is, but for god's sake… Oh well, no matter. He's an idiotic Turk if he ever thinks she'll ever return his feelings for her. Lucrecia was much too brilliant for the likes of him. She loves me after all. Although that in itself proves that she's also a foolish woman, thinking that I could ever truly love her. My work is more important to me than she will ever be. They're both a pair of fools. Maybe they should get together after all. Two oblivious twits sitting in a tree. Humorous, isn't it? _

_Or perhaps I can manipulate his adoration for her, and her adoration for me to work to my advantage. Manipulation is a fine tool, and I'll do it in such a manner that neither of them will think anything of it until the last moment. Oh, it will be brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Their both too blind with their emotions to notice anything anyway. Fools._

_- Hojo_

Yuffie suddenly clutched the book tightly, her eyes filled with an instant twisted sort of anger, temper flaring. How could someone do that to Vincent? How could someone manipulate someone else's feelings like that? That's… that's… pure evil.

In her anger, she flipped through a few more of the frayed pages, eyes skimming each one, and she stopped at a random spot.

…_it was brilliant, the way everything worked out. Vincent Valentine was a perfect victim, I'm still trying to discover if everything worked out, as in if he was a failure, or a success. Thus why I'm waiting for him to awaken. _

_The demons were implanted into him, only one is currently awake, I assume the others will awake as he gets stronger, assuming he even lives. I also managed to attach a fully functional claw onto his left arm in the place of his human hand. There was a side effect to all of this, of course, his eyes bled into this deep garnet-like colour. That alongside his claw will make everyone who sees him fear him, think of him as nothing but a monster. A true Frankenstein. _

_Idiotic Turk, he pretty well sacrificed his humanity for Lucrecia. She's next on my experiment list anyway, well, the child is. She won't resist me, her adoration for me causes her to trust me wholeheartedly. Hmph, she's not as clever as I'd assumed she was, her emotions cloud her senses I suppose. She's a scientist as well anyway, even if she was in her right mind, she'd appreciate the work I'm doing. All for science, right? No matter, it all works out to my advantage, no use looking a gifted horse in the mouth._

_Back to Mr. Valentine, I don't particularly like to admit it, but while I was experimenting on him, I enjoyed hearing his cries. This does make me sound like a monster I suppose, but it was so… fascinating. To hear as screams caught in his throat, and then broke free with such an agony that it was almost as if I were killing him. I mutilated him, but didn't kill him, although I'm sure he would have preferred death._

_I also enjoyed watching as the blood poured from his wounds as I cut open his flesh. It was fascinating. His eyes were open so wide, eyes of, well, I suppose they could be described as azure. A deep blue. Experimentation is an amazing thing._

_I know now that without a doubt, this man will be the one who will kill me, assuming he even lives through this. I believe he will, despite his idiocy, this man is a fairly strong one._

_Oh, it seems our dear friend is awakening. Until later._

_- Hojo_

Yuffie's breath was caught in her throat, and she was suffocating in an intense emotion that was crossed somewhere between rage and depression. He tortured Vincent, and he liked it. He made the gunslinger scream until his throat was raw, and watched as blood poured out of him. He watched him suffer, and didn't feel anything but humour from it. He probably even laughed as Vincent screamed out in agony.

She could almost hear the satanic laughs of amusement echo through her head as Hojo sliced through Vincent's flesh, cut down into his arm with whatever he used. Sliced through the skin, the muscle, until he hit ivory bone. Then he probably sawed, cut through it without so much as a second thought, Vincent's screams echoing through the room, screams of a pain so deep that Yuffie could only compare to the pain she felt in that room. How the gunslinger didn't die of blood loss, she'd never know.

Lucrecia and that man, they betrayed him. Hojo mutilated him, and enjoyed every second of it. How could someone do that? How could you hurt someone like that? Especially someone like Vincent? Vincent didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve any of it.

The ninja wondered if Vincent remembered that night, if he remembered every second of pain that coursed through him, and the torture. Oh god, the torture. The utensils as they sliced mercilessly through his pale skin, as he screamed his throat out, and no one heard him. If they did hear him, they didn't care enough to help him. No one cared enough to help him. It sounded… horrific, so horrible.

She shut the journal slowly, not wanting to read anymore, and tucked it back into her shorts, her thoughts going over exactly what she had just read, like a broken record. She kept picturing it in her mind, his suffering, and she felt so… so angry. She wished that she'd known this before so she could have given Hojo more of the beating he deserved.

Vincent ended up being the one who dealt the finishing blow to the insane man, it was clean, and quick. He probably didn't even have to time feel any pain. He didn't deserve such mercy. He deserved to be tortured, much like Vincent had been. How could Vincent give him a quick death? How could he do that after all he'd been through?

Now she understood why he was the way he was, and she could no longer blame him for it. How could she after what she'd just read?

She felt the chocobo slow down, and come to a halt, and she growled loudly, poking the golden bird in the back of the head violently.

"What the hell do you think you're doing numb nuts? Keep going moron. God. This is no time to be stopping for a rest," she snapped, digging her finger into the back of the birds head.

The bird warked softly, and she looked up, eyebrow cocked with curiosity. There was a man, standing in the middle of the snow. His silver hair blew into the breeze, as did his obsidian coloured scarf, giving him the same overdramatic affect that Vincent's cape gave him.

His aqua eyes were centred on her face, watching her intently. There was a weapon in each of his hands, a pair of curved swords, just waiting to be used, to be stained with crimson blood. She watched him warily, and reached for her Conformer slowly, movements cautious, hoping that he didn't notice.

Vincent watched the man from his place on his own chocobo, something about the way he stood, the way he held his weapon was awfully familiar. Where had he seen something similar to that before?

"I suggest that you and the ninja come with me without any trouble. If you do, I'll spare the beast," he said, his voice quiet, death calm.

His gaze had gone to Vincent's face, and the gunslinger reached for Death Penalty, the man fully aware of that movement. Yuffie snorted, but the man didn't look at her.

"You know, I'm not liking that suggestion buddy," she stated, and she jumped off the chocobo, flinging her Conformer towards him powerfully, the weapon cutting through the cool air with a graceful sort of ease.

The man twisted just enough to barely miss it, and the weapon curved, returning to its master. She growled with annoyance, and prepared herself for another attempt.

"I will give you one more chance. Come now, and I will spare his life. Don't be fools," he said, his voice cooling a few degrees.

Vincent and Red slid off their chocobos in unison, and Vincent shot his weapon, the bullets whizzing passed the man as he twisted and turned in seemingly impossible ways to avoid them. Vincent watched him, stunned. It was rare that anyone could dodge his bullets, but it was never like that, with such… skill. The way he moved, god, where did he know it?

"Have it your way. You will regret that choice," he said, eyes flying over their faces.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up, and let's go," snapped Yuffie, and the man sent her the death look above all death looks, causing her to send back one of her own.

Yuffie threw her Conformer once more, and Vincent shot his bullets in numerous amounts. Red prowled around Taber, waiting for the right moment to strike, preferably at a moment where he wouldn't get shot or cut up.

The bullets nicked him, but didn't do all that much damage. The Conformer on the other hand ripped out a good chunk of his arm, but he didn't cry out, didn't even pay any attention to the deep gash. Blood began to poor out of it, but he paid it no never mind, as if it had never occurred.

Red pounced at him, and it looked as if he was going to get a good attack, until Taber spun around and knocked the beast to the side with his arm, as if he were nothing more than a fly. Red was sent flying into a snowdrift, the snow overcoming him without so much as a second thought.

Yuffie ran at the man, Conformer raised high, and she brought it down just as the man brought up one of his swords. There was the clashing of metal, the sound echoing through the snow plains. They grated and slid across each other, as if trying to meld together, and the gunslinger watched the duel, unable to do much of anything without risking hitting the ninja.

He felt Chaos stir in his mind, although he quickly pushed him away. The demon was too unpredictable, and he hated losing control to him. There was no telling what he would do, and it wasn't worth it. He heard the demon plead to be set free, even for just a few moments, but he quickly put up a mental shield to cut off the noises.

The man was too strong for the ninja, and he used all his force to send her tumbling back into the snow. He then looked to Vincent, and he raised his hand, chanting some sort of incantation that neither Vincent nor Yuffie could make out for the life of them.

Vincent was sent spiral backwards as some forced pushed against him aggressively, almost like a sort of telekinesis. He attempted to land on his feet, but found that he landed on a patch of ice, and he tripped backwards. There was the cracking of ice, and then the ground underneath him shattered. A yell was caught in his throat, and he automatically used his claw to grab onto anything within reach.

He somehow managed to cling onto the side of the pit that he had just discovered was there. He sighed, and felt his limbs slowly tire. He heard scuffling at the surface, and the constant clashing of metal, as well as grunts and yelps of straining. He hitched Death Penalty to his belt, and grasped the edge of the hole with his human hand, attempting to pull himself up. He then had the pleasure of clueing in that the ground was frozen over with a sheet of ice, causing it to be slippery, and his hand slid off.

"Vincent! Are you ok?" the ninja yelled as she quickly dodged Taber's weapons, wincing as the weapon slid so close to her ear that she heard it as it cut through air.

"Currently, yes, although I don't think I'll be able to hang on much longer," he said, making another unsuccessful attempt to pull himself up.

"Ok, hang on there Vinnie, just two minutes," she replied, and backed out of reach of Taber's swinging swords.

She looked at the materia she had equipped, a Time, a Restore, Comet, Shiva, and a few others, all mastered. She snorted and smacked herself in the face.

"Why'd I have to go and pick such shitty materia?" she asked herself, fingering the vibrant gems implanted into her weapon.

She backed away a few more paces, feet crunching atop the snow kissed ground as Taber began to get a little too close for comfort, his swords readied, and the look in his aqua eyes hazardous and enraged. The ninja glanced over at Red, who was still attempting to dig himself out of the snowdrift. Peachy.

Taber dove at her just as she brought up her Conformer, the one sword clashed with the weapon, while the other skimmed her forearm, cutting through the parka and her flesh, causing it to bleed almost instantly. She bit back a cry of pain, and pushed forward with all her might, causing him to stumble back a few paces.

He rapidly regained his posture, and lunged at her again. She quickly muttered an incantation, and the man froze in place, his weapon only a few inches above Yuffie's face. He watched her, his face twisted in some sort of vicious look, and she smirked.

"Oh yeah, that's 'Stop' for you buddy. Eat that. Can't get me now, can you? Can you? Oh wait, you can't talk. Well, I laugh at you. Ha, ha, ha," she mocked, hands on her waist, eyes filled with enough arrogance to choke someone.

"Yuffie. I would appreciate some aid about now," muttered Vincent dryly, and she spun around, suddenly remembering the gunslinger.

"Oops, sorry, forgot about you for a second there Vinnie-boy," she said, amusement waltzing through her voice.

Vincent didn't reply, and Yuffie walked up to him, before leaning over to lend him her non injured arm. He grasped onto it tightly, and she attempted to help him up, finding that he weighed much more than she had originally assumed.

"Whoa, holy crap, you're pretty heavy, you need to lose a few pounds, maybe you should go on weight watchers or something. I hear the Atkins diet is pretty good," she muttered, pulling him up with all her strength.

He grunted, and grasped onto the icy ground with his claw as she pulled him up high enough. He forced himself up onto the ledge, slender body rubbing against the cool ground, and Yuffie released his hand. Red had finally dug himself out from the snow, and was padding over to the pair, shaking the snow off his fiery red fur.

"Jeez, you're such a wuss Red, hiding in that snowdrift while I did all the dirty work of beating his behind. Thanks a bunch," she muttered, her voice filled with mock anger.

Red looked over at Taber, who was breaking against the stop, his movements sluggish, but quickly regaining their original stealth. Yuffie swung Conformer as Vincent unlatched Death Penalty, and the man parried her attack with his amazing amount of speed, finally breaking through the 'stop' that had been placed upon him.

Vincent shot his weapon, the man not moving quickly enough, and it grazed his cheek. Taber found himself boxed in, and moved back a few paces, finding that they closed the distance once more without a second through.

Red dove at him, his nails gripping into his thigh, and ripping Taber's flesh, and the man spun around immediately, knocking the beast in the back of his head with the hilt of his sword. Red fell to the ground, his body limp, almost lifeless, although his breathing gave away the illusion that he could have been dead.

Taber then lunged at Yuffie, bullets whizzing passed his head, and he collided with the ninja, who had also dove at him. His weight was too much for her, and she was sent flying backwards, landing on her feet just an inch away from the deep hole in the ground. The sheet ice was too much, too slippery for her balance, so she slipped, and she fell backwards into the pit.

Screams tore passed her lips, and Vincent spun around automatically, watching in shock as the ninja fell into the dark hole. He grunted, and twisted back around as the man darted towards him, using his weapon to parry the mans swords as they were brought towards him. He shoved the man back, and he lunged himself off the cliff after her.

He couldn't let her die, he refused to let that be another one of his sins.

Taber watched the dark gunslinger in sheer amazement, as well with a hint of entertainment. He was diving in after her. What an idiot. They would surely parish together on impact. What a sickeningly romantic death.

He sighed, and looked at the red beast, who was knocked out, considering whether killing him himself would be a good idea, or just to let the cold take him. He sighed to himself, and simply walked passed the creature, not even bothering to give him one last glance.

He continued to stride through the plains until both the fiery red beast, and the deep opening in the ground had disappeared in the distance behind him.

* * *

Cid and Barret sat in the kitchen, eating their food like a pair of ravenous wolves, very literally shovelling it in. Shera sat at the table, sipping her honey tinted tea every now and then, watching her husband with amusement. She had lost her appetite since the little incident with _that man_, and despite Cid's pestering, she decided against eating and settled for some tea. 

Barret finished his dinner, and stared down at the plate, almost as if he were considering licking it spotless, but in his better mind, pushed it away from him. Cid allowed his utensils to clatter against the plate, announcing to both his comrades that he was finished.

"That was some good cookin' Shera," muttered Barret, rubbing his hand in a circular motion over his much-too-stuffed stomach.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," she said, standing up, grasping onto both his and Cid's plates, before walking leisurely over to the sink across the room. "Are you two almost done with the airship?"

"Yeah, it's coming along nicely, it should be finished in a few days if everything goes fine, but with our frigin luck, it probably won't," he muttered, and Shera paused, glancing over her shoulder to look at her fiancé.

"Don't be so cynical—" her phrase ended when the two plates went crashing into the sink, and the two men twisted around to look at her.

She was gripping the sink, leaning over it with her eyes shut tightly. There was a raw expression on her face, and Cid slowly got up, and walked over to her. He touched her shoulder, and her eyes jolted open. She smacked her head backwards, nailing him right in the nose, causing him to yelp, and recoil, releasing her.

"Holy fuck me. What the hell, Shera?" he snapped, his eyes filled with rage, despite how he knew it wasn't her fault. Something was happening to her again. No. _NO!_

He grasped onto her shivering form, and pulled her into his arms, his body curving around her in every possible way, as if he were acting as her shield. Barret stood up quickly enough that the chair was sent spiralling backwards onto the floor, and he moved next to the pair, looking around them for something, anything to tell him what was causing this.

She began to spasm in his grip, but he continued to hold onto her, his clutch on her tightening even more, trying as hard as he could to keep her still.

"Shera stop it, you're going to hurt yourself," he muttered, his face buried in her hair.

His voice seemed to calm her, though only slightly, for she kept twitching violently, almost as if she were having a seizure. Her knees gave way, and she let herself go, although Cid's hold on her kept her from falling to the kitchen floor. He held her fallen form easily, her spasming coming to a quits.

He picked her up bridal style, and stared down at her. She was pale, much too pale, and he hugged her body against him, head bowed as he felt a cry get caught in his throat. Her body was so hot, her warmth soaking in through his clothes, it was almost as if she were on fire, for that's sure what it felt like to the rugged blond man.

Her eyes were still open, and she watched him, her lips parted, her breathing deep and calm. He searched her face, watching her every movement, every faint emotion as it passed over her face. He could almost feel her weakness, she was getting sick, just like the rest of them had.

He didn't want to admit to that, admit to the fact that she could possibly be dying. He could let it happen, he refused to let her go away from him, he wasn't ready yet. He probably never would be, but if she left, if she died, he would truly be alone, childless, and loveless. He couldn't accept that.

Words of prayer slithered silently through his mind, words that he hadn't uttered in a long, long time. He prayed to himself, and hoped that someone, anyone would hear them, and help him. Maybe they'd give him a miracle, because that's what he needed. A miracle.

* * *

As per usual, I must give my thanks to all who reviewed my last chapter XD, I really appreciate it. 

And again, I must mention that constructive criticism is always welcome, hehe.


	9. Relearning How to See

Disclaimer – Prologue.

So many ISUs and FSEs. It's suffocating me. Stupid teachers.

**Colour Blind – Counting Crows**  
I am colorblind,  
Coffee black and egg white.  
Pull me out from inside.

Chapter 8 – Relearning How to See

* * *

The blond man gazed around the mildly crowded bar, eyes flicking passed faces consistently, developing almost a sort of rhythm, trying to find his targets, the Turks. Tifa led him through the tavern, constantly pushing passed people as they stepped in her way. She felt completely and utterly exhausted and irritated, and she probably would have liked nothing more than to return to the Inn and take a nap or something of that manner. The femme fighter didn't particularly feel like dealing with the arrogant Turks, or for that matter, anyone else. She just… wanted to be alone to rethink some things. Things that she was shoving away at that very moment. She didn't need the distractions, but damn, were they ever persistent. 

"Do you see them?" he asked, and she shook her head slowly. "Great."

A sound rang through the bar loudly, an obvious cheer of victory from the corner of the room. The voice triggered something in her head and brought up a picture of the source of the voice in her mind. She paused a moment, glancing over her shoulder at her blond comrade.

"Cait Sith," muttered Tifa, and she reached back automatically, before clasping the blond man's hand, sending a jolt of startling heat through him.

She thought nothing of the action, not as he apparently had, and she pulled him across the bar, closely following the elongated sounds of over dramatized cheering. She gripped onto his hand even tighter, using her other to push people roughly out of the way, irritation finally shattering the thin layer of patience she usually held, and getting the best of her.

He simply let her lead him, feeling the pressure of her fingers' warmth against his hand, and unbeknownst to anyone else in the room, including his female companion, emotions ploughed forcefully through him. Ones that still bewildered him after such time.

They came to a table where the Turks sat, coiled around it, cards splayed along the tabletop in front all three of them, and Cait Sith. He was grinning like a fiend, and was pulling in all the money that had compiled in the centre of the table.

Tifa finally released his hand as she came to stop, and he resisted the urge to frown in sudden discontentment. He missed the warmth of her hand against his, the feeling of comfort it provided him to feel her. He shook his head, as if shaking away any persistent displeasure evoked by her releasing his hand, he was being stupid, he knew that. This wasn't the time to be sulking over something so trivial.

"How? How did we lose to a robotic cat?" asked Elena, rubbing the back of her neck roughly as her eyes flicked from Reno's face to Rude's.

"Beats me, this is messed up. Stupid bucket of bolts, he probably cheated or something. There's no way we were fairly beat by a robot," snapped Reno, icy blue eyes fixated on the little robotic cat's arrogant face.

"Or maybe I'm just too smart for you guys. Yeah, that sounds more like it," he said, trying very hard to keep the smirk off his face.

Reno twitched, and he looked as if he were starting to find it very difficult to control his temper, while Elena was glaring at him with the utmost hatred. Rude just seemed to stare straight ahead, his sunglasses covering his eyes, and boxing in any emotions that may have glazed over them. Eyes whose colour was unknown to both Cloud and Tifa. Now that she dwelled upon it, she couldn't remember him ever taking off his sunglasses. Not that it really mattered.

"I can see you guys are working hard," muttered Cloud dryly, and they turned to look at him in a scary sort of unison, as if it had been choreographed beforehand.

"Hey, hey, it's Cloud and Tifa. How've you been guys? Long time no talk. You miss me? I'm sure you did. How's everyone else? Good? I sure hope so, and before you ask, I've been fine," said Cait, mouth running faster than most people's minds could follow.

"Shut up, Cait. Yeah, we figured you guys would find us eventually, and we decided it would be best if we didn't travel through the night, so here we are. Great place, great place," stated Reno grinning, gathering up the stray cards along the table, and forming them neatly into a deck.

"You knew we were looking for you?" asked Tifa, bewilderment breaking through the shield of neutralization that she had attempted to place up.

"Well, we hoped. We figured you'd need us sooner or later, since you'd want to know what we know about what's happening," stated Rude, turning his head too look at the brunette.

"Not that we actually know anything—" muttered Elena, although she was abruptly cut off by a suddenly disgruntled Reno.

"Dammit Elena, you always talk too much," snapped the redhead, and Elena sunk down into her chair, crossing her arms with annoyance, but she said nothing more.

"Great," growled Cloud, that single word oozing with so much sarcasm and disdain that the group around him almost choked on it.

"Well, since we're not doing anything tonight, why don't you sit down and play with us a nice rowdy game of poker?" asked Reno, leaning back in his chair, shuffling the cards rhythmically in his hands.

"No. We don't have time to be screwing around like this," snapped the spiky haired man, bright blue eyes glazing over with irritation.

Elena rolled her light brown eyes, almost the colour of glittering gold, and choked back a scoff. "Oh, and what should we be doing instead? It's not like we're really going anywhere today, we'll freeze to death when it gets dark. And to think, you're supposed to be the smartest one of the group."

Cloud shot her a cool glare, and her jaw snapped shut. His eyes travelled from Elena's face, to Reno's, and finally to Rude's, who was staring at him through his dark lenses of his thick sunglasses. Why the man wore sunglasses inside, he would never know. Odd quirk maybe.

"Do you have a working cell phone or something?" he asked, and Rude nodded his head, pulling it out of his pocket to show the man.

"Why?"

"We think we know who's the ringleader of this incident. His name is Victor Morales I think. He knew Hojo, maybe he was a scientist or something. He would have been in your data banks right?" he asked, and Rude hesitated for a minute, brain sorting through the information at the back of his mind.

"We have everyone in our data banks," answered Reno quickly before Rude could even begin to open his mouth, still shuffling the deck of cards consistently.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Call up whoever it is you call up, and make them search it or something," said Cloud, irritation breaking into his voice, eyes burning into Reno's face.

Elena growled, but didn't dare say anything, although she watched Cloud with enough irritation that it almost hurt for someone to catch sight of. Her eyes travelled to Rude, and watched as he tilted his head downwards, and began dialling in the numbers on the cell as they raised to the front of his memory. He raised the phone and looked up at the group of beings as they watched his every movement intently.

"Yeah, look up Victor Morales, call me back when you get the information," he said, then there was a long pause.

"No, I'll explain it later. Look him up and call me back."

He flipped the phone closed with that departing statement, and replaced it in his pocket. Cloud watched him, expecting something… anything, but the man just stared into his face, silent, as if he was expecting something as well.

"How long until they get his information?" he finally asked, and Rude shrugged his shoulders.

"The data bank is huge, searching through every single profile we have takes hours, despite how we have a searching tool. There's just too much information to sift through," he replied, slouching forward, his exhaustion becoming painfully evident.

"So, we have a few hours to kill, sit down you two, take a load off, play some poker. All we can do is wait," Reno said, beginning to pass out cards for everyone circled around the table.

Cloud sighed, and him and Tifa took a seat in between Reno and Rude. Tifa collected her cards, and fanned them out in her hand, holding them close enough so that no other wandering eyes could catch sight of them.

"So where are your other pals? Particularly the vamp," asked Reno, looking over at Tifa, a mischievous glint slipping through his intent gaze.

"Doing other things. Vincent happens to be with Red and Yuffie, they had been at the mansion, but we're not sure where they are now," said Tifa, toying with the cards in her grasp.

"So everyone's doing okay? Everyone's still alive? Didn't get slaughtered like Aeris? Lifestream rest her soul," said Cait Sith innocently, eyes flicking between the faces of Tifa and Cloud. "Speaking of Aeris, you get over her yet Cloud?"

Cloud's throat constricted, vines of sudden sorrow slipping around his throat, and tightening painfully slowly. Though he opened his mouth to speak, no words came out, they were tiny captive moths restrained to the flesh prison of his throat for that moment. The memory of the flower girl came tumbling back to him, although the pain was dulled from what it once had been. Just because it was dulled did it mean it had disappeared. It had by no means disappeared. He had cared for her, loved her in fact, but he'd known that he'd have to move on, so he was trying to deal with it. He would never forget her, but he couldn't live his life in his memories. Not anymore.

"What's it to you? It looks like you've turned into more of a jackass since the last time we talked" snapped Cloud, eyes narrowed on his face, the gaze filled with sudden disdain.

"Eh, I guess that's one of the effects of being reprogrammed," muttered Cait with a shrug, switching various cards.

There was no more conversation after that, even the Turks dared not speak. They just played their game of poker, and Cait won every round. Of course, it wasn't until later on that they discovered that he indeed had been cheating the whole time.

* * *

She felt the coolness seep into her winter garments, causing her fallen form to be attacked by a parade of goose bumps, dancing along her naturally tanned flesh. Her heart pounded in her chest, the constant thumping of an overwhelming sort of panic that she had just experienced from tumbling down the pit, feet away from her doom. Her chest rose and fell in a sort of constant rhythm, and she tried to calm her heart. So close, so close to death, had it not been for him. 

Vincent had dove into the pit after her, and he had caught her around her waist, suspending her in midair for just a slight fraction of time. His claw had dug into the wall of the hole, and had slowed their fall enough so that they didn't get killed. He had saved her life, she would have been almost certainly a pancake had it not been for him. Damn him, now she owed him. What a hassle.

She rolled her head to the side where Vincent lay, staring upwards as she had been. His cape was bunched up around his lean body, and his chest was rising and falling as he breathed slowly, with a calmness that was currently foreign to her. She watched him, eyes trailing up from his chest, to his broad shoulders, up his neck, and to his porcelain face. He looked calm, almost peaceful. His lips were parted, his crimson eyes half open, giving him a sort of dreamy look, a strange description now that Yuffie dwelled upon it.

Then there was that sensation in her stomach. Probably indigestion… or something.

He sat up slowly, and looked over at her curiously. She blinked at him, and sat up as well, stretching her knotted muscles. Vincent stood up, and groaned as he moved his clawed arm the wrong way, finding that the shoulder, which was all flesh and bone, hurt like a mother.

"What's wrong? Hurt your claw? I didn't think you could feel it," said Yuffie, carelessly brushing off extra ice shards off her coal black pants.

"I can't, it's my shoulder. Driving my claw into the side of this pit, and then having both our weights hanging on it didn't have a pleasant effect on my shoulder. It's quite painful to move it," he explained, attempting to roll it, and wincing as the pain shot through his form.

"Did you pull it out of your socket or something?" she asked as she pushed herself up onto her feet, and the gunslinger shook his head in response.

"Clearly not, I can still move it," he retorted, still attempting to move it despite the constant flashes of throbbing pain that coursed through him in immediate jolts.

"Want me to use a cure?" she asked, and he immediately shook his head, glancing at her with his scarlet eyes.

"Don't bother, better to save your energy for emergencies. I'll be fine in a while," he said with a shrug.

"Fine, just let me see it then," she said quietly, and walked over to him.

She reached over and touched his shoulder with a maternal gentleness that she hadn't known she had in her, but he immediately stepped back from her reach out of habit. She frowned, and an offended look swept over her face, a feeling of rejection pouring through her like a bucket of near frozen water.

"Jeez, I'm not going to bite you or anything," she growled, brows furrowed.

"I apologize, I'm not… used to being touched by others. It's been a long time as you probably know, and I wasn't expecting it. I didn't mean to offend you," he said, tilting his head, as if attempting to look down at her better.

She sighed quietly, almost inaudibly, and stepped towards him once more, taking his words as permission to try again. She touched his hurt shoulder, and though he flinched from the physical contact from another being, as well as the sudden jolt of pain at contact, she continued to feel around it.

She could feel the warmth of his body radiating through the soft material of his shirt, running along her tiny hand as it pried along his joints, which were checking for cracks or remote displacement of any sort. His skin felt smooth under the shirt, smooth and so intoxicatingly warm.

"Probably just a sprain or something, it doesn't feel like you cracked anything," she said finally, and let her hands fall away, although she didn't back away.

"As I thought. If you don't mind me asking, how do you know anything about injuries?" he asked softly, and she grinned mischievously.

"Eh, lessons about physical repairs and patching yourself up if need be. One of the few classes I actually paid attention in. Figure that," she said, placing her hands on her hips, stormy hues staring up into his handsome face contently.

"Ah."

"So, what're we going to do now? We can't exactly climb up the icy walls," she muttered, looking around their iced up cage.

The walls had an almost blue tint to them, sheets of ice running along the walls, barely any snow gripping onto them for dear life. The breaks of sunlight from where the clouds didn't quite merge shone along the frozen walls, reflecting against it, and hitting the opposing wall, causing their cave to be fairly alit.

Vincent nodded his head towards the wall behind her, and she turned around to find that there was an opening to what looked to be an old mining tunnel. It was pitch black, a dark abyss waiting to swallow them up, and she sighed, knowing that they had no other choice.

"Well I can't exactly see in the dark, and it's not like I keep flashlight in my back pocket," she muttered dryly, and Vincent cocked an eyebrow.

"I can see perfectly well in the dark, hold onto my cape or something of that matter, and I'll lead you through it. Heaven forbid there's anything remotely dangerous in there," he said, watching her face attentively.

"Not like we have much of a choice. So, lead the way Vinnie boy," she said, with dramatic hand motions to accompany her exaggerated words.

He made his way passed her, and she caught the side of his cape as he walked by. She trailed closely behind him as he lead her into the darkness. They walked through the tunnel, and she glanced warily over her shoulder, giving the light one last look of longing, before it was overcome by the inky blackness of the dark.

She heard their footsteps crunch against the thin blanket of snow against the ground, their breathing, her own pounding, nervous heartbeat, but other than that, it was all silence. She sniffed the air, it was the stench of something immensely bitter that bombarded her nostrils, and she choked back an oncoming coughing fit. What a horrible smell.

She grasped onto Vincent's cape a bit tighter, and walked slightly faster, striding as close as possible without stepping on his heels. She was nervous, it's not like she didn't have her other senses, but this was almost like being blind, her vision stolen away with the sunlight. What a horrible fate, to end up blind.

They walked for a long while, and Yuffie's mind briefly began forming doubts at the front of her mind. What if this tunnel never ended? What if they ran into a dead end? What if it collapsed? What if something attacked them? What if Vincent and her managed to be separated? What if, what if, what if.

She growled softly, and tried to think about something else, although her mind kept trying to return to those ever cynical what if questions. This was no time to be depressed and pessimistic, life already had enough of that without her and her cynical mind to add to it. She had to be optimistic. Yes, optimistic… yes, it wasn't working.

She trusted Vincent, she trusted him with her life, trust he had clearly proven himself worthy of. He wouldn't lead them astray, he wouldn't let anything bad happen to them. She didn't need to be nervous, he would be there. Right? She immediately mentally bashed herself for depending on him. Stupid, stupid ninja. But still… it was a comforting thought to know she could trust him, and that he would protect her.

She continued to saunter behind Vincent, ignoring the plaguing feeling of discomfort that her legs were beginning to feel. Being as there was nothing to distract her from the new found dull ache, she couldn't do anything but think about it, and dwell on how the more she walked, the more cramped her legs seemed to get.

She found herself getting more and more irritated as time crept by, she couldn't see, couldn't hear much of anything, and she smelled bitter sour-milk-like-crap galore. Not to mention that she couldn't keep her mind off her legs. Yes, she was indeed a becoming little testy.

The ninja sighed, but continued to stare ahead, hoping that sunlight would break through the darkness at any moment. And after a while, it did, its light quite literally a saviour at the end of the tunnel. Vincent slowed before their forms broke out into the welcoming glow of the sunbeams attempting to break passed the thick clouds, but having little luck.

"Vinnie, what are you doing?" she snapped, irritated, as she released the tight hold on his crimson cape.

"Yes," was all he said, and she placed her hands on her hips, bewildered.

"Yeah, what? Vinnie, you've lost your mind haven't you? Finally went into the deep end, eh? Wouldn't surprise me, you've been acting funky lately. I guess it was only a matter of time…" she said, words partnered with an exaggerated sigh.

Had Vincent had it in him, he would have rolled his garnet eyes.

"No. You asked me if I would get rid of whatever's in you even if it meant we had to find another way to destroy his soul, and I replied to you," he explained, twisting his head to look over his shoulder at the ninja.

"Oh. Well, that's an answer I sure didn't expect. Now why would you do that?" she asked, tilting her head inquisitively.

"No one deserves to have anything remotely similar to Chaos in them, to go through that sort of torture. We'd find another way," he explained with a shrug, and began his way out the cave, not bothering to wait for the young woman's delayed response.

Yuffie blinked, eyes fixated on the back of Vincent's head as he finally stepped into the dim beams, letting the light slither around his rigid form. She didn't know what to think about that, what to feel, so maybe it was best if she didn't think or feel anything, let herself be numbed for a little while.

She trailed out behind him, feeling an automatic euphoria to be out of that depressing cave, as it was beginning to make her feel a little claustrophobic. The wind's icy whip thrashed against her flesh, and she groaned to herself, being instantly reminded just how harsh the winter weather was.

"Where's Red?" Yuffie asked, although it was almost as if she were speaking to herself, for Vincent never answered.

Her eyes snapped to Vincent's face, demanding an answer from the gunslinger, and she noticed he was staring at something, eyebrow raised, total puzzlement slung over his porcelain visage. She followed his gaze, and came to an interesting sight that even shut her up.

There were their two chocobos coiled around the giant cat, his head poking out though an opening, where the birds' feathered bodies didn't meet. Red breathed in deeply, and exhaled, a puff of air leaving his nostrils, revealing to the two companions that he was alive, most likely credits to the chocobos, who had been clever enough to have kept him warm. Surprising creatures they were.

"Would you look at that. God, sometimes they surprise me. Maybe I give them too little credit," said Yuffie, smile toying at her lips. She pondered upon the words that had left her mouth, and she shook her head. "Nah."

Vincent looked up at the cloud filled sky, noting that it looked to be nearing late afternoon. He heaved a sigh, knowing that he would have to modify their original plans, for it wasn't a wise idea to be travelling during the night.

"It appears as if we'll be going to Cid's after all," he muttered, drawing Yuffie's slate gaze onto his face, though she didn't respond to his statement.

He pulled out the PHS and flicked it open, automatically dialling in the numbers to the phone he'd already called numerous times over the course of their journey.

"What?" greeted Cloud, and there was the sound of snickering in the background, as well as the voice of the robotic cat, asking who it was.

"Don't leave Icicle Inn, we'll be joining you later tomorrow," said Vincent, tapping his metal claw on the back of the plastic phone, making an almost irritating clicking sound. And with that, he shut the phone, not even bothering to wait for a reply from the spiky-haired swordsman.

"Friendly as always," mumbled Yuffie, and the gunslinger shrugged his shoulders lamely, weariness finally catching up with him.

His rest had been little to nil since waking up from the temporary home of his coffin. His body, although it was more resistant to everything than a human's was, was still susceptible to exhaustion, and god, it was really coming down on him now. He mentally insulted himself for feeling so tired so suddenly, and proceeded in ignored it. He could sleep next month.

"So, what are we waiting for? Christmas? Let's go," said Yuffie, and stepped passed Vincent towards her chocobo.

At the sound of her footsteps coming near, Red's eyes opened dazedly, staring at her for a few seconds with puzzlement, as if he couldn't seem to remember who she was. Finally, memories came back to him in a swift rush, and he stood up, his sudden movements triggering the chocobos to stand as well, although with a wark of discontentment.

"Sleeping on the job, eh? Didn't even come find us when we were thrown off the cliff. I see how much you like us," muttered Yuffie with mock anger, and she crossed her arms.

"Hardly sleeping, I was knocked unconscious. It's quite a surprise he didn't bother to kill me," said Red, golden orb trailing over Yuffie's sceptical face.

"Yeah, yeah, make your excuses," she said sarcastically, eyes glittering with amusement.

No one bothered to comment anything more, they just set themselves comfortably onto their chocobos' saddles, and hurried them on. They seemed to tread through the snowdrifts more easily than they had once had, finally getting used to how to walk through the snow properly, and more time efficiently. One of the few pleasant realisations of the day.

Darkness had nearly completely blanketed over the land by the time the chocobos broke into Rocket Town, and they cooed their chocobos onward to the edge of the township. True to their memories, there was the house, a loner at the edge of the town. The airship rested behind it, looking about the same as they remembered it to be, although considerably more rusted.

Yuffie dismounted he chocobo, finding that her bottom had fallen asleep, and she needed a good stretch. She grabbed on loosely to the bird's reins, and walked ahead of Vincent and Red, who soon followed suit, and dismounted their own chocobo.

As she neared the house, the chocobo's footsteps became hesitant, and she soon came to a halt, watching the building warily. Yuffie gave the reins a pull, and got a wild wark in return. She pulled again, and the bird stepped back a few paces, much to Yuffie's discontentment.

"God, don't be an idiot, let's go. I'm tired, you're tired, we're all tired, and I'm not in the damned mood for this crap. Lets go!" she shrieked, smacking the bird lightly at the side of her beak, causing the bird to snap at her hand.

"OH! So, that's how it is? You know what? Fine, if you don't want to go into the stable, you can sit out here and freeze. I hope you like that. Jerk," she snapped, and released the reins, and stamped away from the bird angrily.

Vincent found his chocobo also refused to go any farther than Yuffie's had, and he simply let it go, not bothering to even try to force it to come. Attempting to force it would have been a useless attempt. Once a five-hundred pound anything decided not to budge, that was the end to that discussion.

Yuffie walked up to the door, but didn't knock. She grinned to herself, and decided that maybe a little peak through the window to the inside of their living room would be interesting, maybe she'd even be able to scare them out of their skin if they caught sight of her. Oh, what an absolutely grand idea, it was ingenious, if she said so herself. Absolutely brilliant, in fact.

She walked up to the window, preparing the most startling face she could muster, and peaked inside. Red and Vincent walked up behind her, curious as to what the mischievous young woman was planning. Yuffie pressed her face against the glass, and looked around the dimly lit room for anyone she happened to know.

Her startling face fell, and she gapped against the window, watching the sight with vast amounts of confusion. Cid was seated on an old and torn forest green couch, Shera laying sprawled out across his lap, her eyes blank, two glassy marbles staring onto the ceiling.

Barret was behind the couch, looking around the room warily, and then glancing down at the pair every now and then, as if checking to see if anything more was happening.

She felt _it_, the power, the _something_ stir inside her, and her eyes flew to Shera once more, and she noticed that someone else, that man touching Shera. Why hadn't she noticed? Why couldn't she see him before?

There he was holding Shera's jaw with a single hand, her lips parted, and he stared down at her with amusement, and hunger. His skin was so white, a shade off the colour of snow, and it made Vincent's flesh look vastly tanned. His dirty blond hair fell into his ghostly white face, and the ninja noted that his clothes were black, black jeans, black t-shirt, nothing else. He seemed to be concentrating, eyes fixated on her face, and his lips moved so subtly that she almost hadn't noticed.

* * *

Of course, I must say thanks so much to those who reviewed XD. It's awesome. Awesome I say! 

And of course, thanks for the constructive criticism, it's always welcome. 


	10. Velveteen Moonlight

Disclaimer – Prologue, my friend, prologue

Okay, so I've been busy. I'm not going to lie, I was busy until July, which is when I should have written and posted this chapter. But, I hit a dry spell, and you know. A creative slump, I guess you could say. But, here it is now!

**Velveteen by Ilaria Graziano  
**Feel you in my hunger,  
You're haunting my ambition,  
Beautifully destructive attraction

Chapter 9 – Velveteen Moonlight

* * *

She backed away from the window as the movement inside her came to a sudden still. She hit something hard and unmoveable behind her, and turned her head to see Vincent staring down at her inquisitively. For a moment, she just stared up at him, and then proceeded in swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, trying to keep both her heart and her breath steady.

"Look what he's doing to Shera. Why aren't they stopping him?" she asked, her voice a near whisper, and Vincent peered into the window from his place a few feet away.

"Cid's just holding her, she looks ill. I don't find anything wrong with that," stated Vincent, looking back down at the ninja's frantic face.

"No, not Cid you numbskull, the other guy, touching her face. Hello? Don't you see him?" she asked, twisting around to stare the gunslinger directly in the face.

"Yuffie, there's no one there other than Cid, Barret, and Shera," replied Red calmly, golden eye searching her face as bewilderment flared through him.

She raised her hands above her head, and looked into the sky, as if asking help from some unseen force, before letting her hands drop a few moments later, teeth grinding together in sudden irritation. She then walked quickly past both her comrades, and barged into the house, door forced open with a loud slam as it crashed against the wall.

"I'll show you," she snapped coolly at the pair as she stepped inside.

Both Vincent and Red hurried in after her, feeling not even a flicker of surprise at her sudden harsh action. Such actions were far too common from the irrational ninja, common enough that the shock value had been lost only days after they had met her.

"Hey, you, yeah you, look at me, asshole," she said, her hands gripping onto her slim waist tightly.

Cid looked at her, instantly infuriated. "Who are you calling an asshole, you dumb fuck?"

"Not you, moron, him," she said, pointing at the figure touching Shera's face, and he looked at her, surprised.

Cid looked to where she was pointing, and blinked, his anger instantly cooled by the sudden rush of bewilderment. Bewildered, but not surprised. It simply figured.

The other man's irises were darker than coal, black as the inky night, and empty, not at all unlike an endless abyss that took any and all emotions, and engulfed them. He blinked as she continued pointing and staring at him straight in the face, almost disbelieving that she could see him. It wasn't supposed to be possible to others unlike himself.

"You can see me?" he asked, and his hand dropped from its place on Shera's face, and she gave a quiet, almost inaudible gasp.

"No shit, Sherlock. What, do you think I'm blind?" she asked, and rolled her stormy eyes at him, to which he just shrugged.

"You're pretty well the first. This is quite the predicament, quite the predicament indeed…" his voice drifted off as he began to back away.

She felt the _it_ fill her, and she allowed it to overtake her for just a moment, because it just felt so right then, so utterly perfect. For a moment, that instant, she felt almost complete, like that one piece of the puzzle had just been found. She felt the rush of a newly discovered power, and she charged, adrenaline rising at an immense rate.

She grasped her Conformer, detached it from her belt, and swung at him. The man moved as surprise rushed through him, shifting to dodge her blade. He was quick, but his speed didn't match that of the ninja's, and the conformer created a gash against the white flesh of his face. His hand flew to the wound, and he backed into the wall.

"How did you do that? You're a human, you can't…" he said quietly, coal eyes filling with the first real emotion she could see; fear. He sunk through the wall without another word.

Yuffie lowered her Conformer, and she felt the _it_ resume its place deep within her, stilling once more into its semi comfortable spot. It was beginning to form a niche within her, and she was beginning to accept it. Was it to become a real part of her?

"What the hell was that? Have ya lost yer mind?" asked Barret, watching her with a certain puzzlement.

"You mean to tell me that none of you saw him?" she asked, looking at all their faces questioningly. As a reply, they all shook their heads in unison.

"Shera said she saw someone," said Cid quietly, anger tinting his voice. "Why the hell can you two see it, but not us?"

"I probably can because of Aeris' oh so awesome present," she paused for a moment when she noted their questioning gazes, "Don't ask, I don't want to explain it to you, it's too complex for your tiny brains. Shera probably can see him because it's actually happening to her. Anyway, I think I scared him off, damn right I did, and I doubt he'll be coming back."

"Maybe, maybe not," said Red with shrug and a flick of his tail.

"What do you propose we do?" asked Vincent, glancing over at him.

"We're all exhausted, I suggest we take shifts through the night to watch her," said Red, and glanced around at their sceptical faces. "It's true that only Yuffie can see the intruder, but everyone can still notice if anything unusual comes to pass."

"Good damned idea. The sun's pretty well already down anyway," he muttered with a quick glance at the clock on the wall. "A bit after nine. We should all get some shut eye, eh?"

"Sounds fine by me, who's gonna take tha first watch?" asked Barret, leaning up against the back of the worn and torn couch.

"I'll do it first. I'll put her in our bedroom, two of you can sleep on the couch, and the other two can go in the extra room. Sound good? Well too damn bad if it doesn't. Suck it up ninnies," said Cid, and he stood up, picking up his fiancé, and waltzed out of the living room.

With that, there was no more conversation, other than organizing shifts and who was going to sleep where for the time being. They also found that it would be best if they just went to sleep where whoever they were switching shifts with slept, to avoid the noise that bumbling around in the dark could possibly make.

Yuffie laid herself down in the bed in the extra room, pleased with herself for having so masterfully argued with the others enough that she'd won one of the two actual beds. So much better than the couch. Fools.

She glanced over at Red in the next bed, his back rising and falling as he laid on his side, head on the pillow, and unusual sight to say the least. He was already sleeping, his snores soft, and his breathing deep. The room was slightly on the chilly side, as it always seemed to be wherever she was, and she pulled the covers tightly around her, attempting to gather as much heat as possible to chase away the goose bumps from her arms.

She found herself flowing in and out of sleeping, dreaming dreams that she couldn't seem to remember from one minute to the next. She heard the shifts change, and people move around, although it wasn't long before the noises disappeared, and she was back in her shallow sleep. Her body was so tired, completely and utterly exhausted, but her mind was full and anxious, most commonly thinking about _it_, and other things that she tried not to let her mind stray to. A subject with deep crimson eyes.

She'd been doing it commonly recently, although she'd never admit it, nor would she acknowledge that something else that was roaming around her mind and in her gut. A feeling that rivalled the annoyance that _it_ provided her. Of course, it was nothing, right? She was probably just hungry. She had to be just hungry. God, how she wanted to believe that was the simple truth. Unfortunately, she knew that things were rarely ever just that simple.

The ninja knew that it wasn't hunger she felt plaguing her, but living in denial about such things seemed to be working for the time being. Although it was proving more difficult to ignore as time progressed. Whatever, she didn't care. Just sleep, she just wanted to sleep. What she would have given just to be able to sleep her worries away.

She heard the door open, the hinges crying out for a good oiling, and Yuffie opened her eyes to two thin slits, curiously watching whoever came in. It was the gunslinger, and she observed as he tapped on Red's back, and the beast raised his head slowly, before nodding his head, and hopping off the bed. He padded silently out of the room, pulling the creaking door shut behind him.

Vincent took a seat at the edge of his bed, back facing Yuffie, the moonlight soaking in through the window, and it immersed him in its milky glow. He undid his cloak, placed it on the floor next to the bed, alongside Death Penalty. He proceeded in unbuttoning the first few buttons on his obsidian shirt, movements so slow and graceful that she couldn't help but watch. He pulled the opening to his shirt over to look at his injured shoulder, touching and shifting it, as if unsure that it still hurt. He winced faintly, and rubbed it automatically, a poor attempt to soothe the dull ache. He sighed to himself, and closed his eyes for just a moment.

Moonlight's radiance slid along his porcelain skin, caressing it as a lover would, as his off white flesh gave an otherworldly glow in its sumptuous rays. His coal hair cascaded down his back, and ran along his shoulders with what looked to be with the utmost silkiness. His lips were parted slightly as he breathed faintly, crimson eyes—oh, such a rich shade of red—observing it with the utmost dissatisfaction.

He looked unbelievable, stunning, and her heartbeat seemed to jump in her throat. He was something between being beautiful, and being handsome. His looks were too feminine to have been completely handsome, but he still held that masculine air that saved him from being completely beautiful. A word at the tip of her tongue to describe him, a word she couldn't seem to find in the back of her mind, so she didn't dare think anything else, for there was only one perfect word, and nothing else was just as good.

The ninja sighed to herself. To sum up all the poetic and eye pleasing words, she was finding him insanely attractive. Honestly, she always had, she could resist admitting it before, but she couldn't deny it now, not while she stared at him with his sheer magnificence, and was feeling what she felt. She couldn't say it was love. You don't love someone suddenly like that, she knew that. It must have been lust. Nothing more, just lust. Just a twisted infatuation with a polar opposite gothic creation.

One that she knew wouldn't be requited.

Yuffie sat up in her bed, and twisted to sit on the edge of the bed, still facing Vincent. The bed springs creaked, and the man spun around, surprised.

His crimson eyes met hers, and as the light crept into the room, and entered her eyes, his breath caught in his throat, as her heartbeat had in hers. Two orbs that danced with silver fire, blazing with mischievousness, glittering with deviousness.

She watched him closely, but didn't move in the least. The feeling, _that feeling_, it welled up so largely in her stomach, her insides spasming with a sort of warmth, as if she had been set on fire, and then doused in water so cold it felt hot. She felt like she would choke on it, that it would suffocate her. But it didn't, it just continued to move inside her, not like _it_ had, but in a more welcoming way. It was supposed to be there, it was truly hers.

Vincent relearned how to breathe, and he turned away from her, closing his eyes tightly, trying to get rid of that vision of her face, with the eyes glowing of silver fire. Her image was disbanded when, in his desperation, Lucrecia came to mind, and any emotion he might have been feeling before was doused in the icy water of sorrow and anguish.

His love, his beautiful Lucrecia.

He didn't look at Yuffie after that, despite how he felt her eyes almost smothering him, memorizing his every movement. He simply slid under the covers, and turned towards the window, closing his eyes loosely. He could nearly see the light through his eyelids, but he didn't turn away.

He soon let himself succumb to sleep, letting himself fall into the dark chasm filled with no dreams, no nothing. Just unshakable darkness.

Morning came, as it always tended to do, and the morning rays slid deviously into the room, falling brightly into Vincent's face. The man's pale eyelids fluttered open, and he winced, turning away from the light as his eyes began to sting, shocked at the sudden impact of the bright rays.

He caught sight of the bed next to him, which was empty, covers thrown back in disarray, exposing the ivory cotton bed sheets that had been slept on. He was mildly surprised that she wasn't there, the ninja wasn't someone who commonly woke up early.

He pushed back his own set of covers, and sat up slowly, finding that his body ached for some reason or another. Not to mention that his left leg decided that it wanted a bit more sleep, shooting a sort of discomfort of pins and needles through him every time he attempted to move it. How bothersome.

He shook it off, and stood up, picking his cape off the ground in one smooth motion. He slipped it around his shoulders, and quickly hitched up the clasps in the front, holding it together comfortably. The gunslinger took his weapon, and he trailed out of the room, footsteps silent against the carpeted floor.

Vincent broke from the hall out into the living room, which also partially doubled as a kitchen. Red and Barret were sleeping on the couch. Barret's mouth was hanging open, a little trail of drool leaking from his lips, which was pressed into a pillow as he laid on his stomach. Charming.

He walked into the kitchen, and caught sight of motion outside the backdoor's window. His crimson eyes searched for the movement through the thick, partially scratched up glass of the window, and he saw it. A vision of black and green, and he instantly knew who it was.

He slung the weapon over his shoulder skilfully, and he moved with his catlike grace to the door, twisting the golden knob and pulling it open silently, making sure not to make any noise to disturb the other sleeping figures. Sunlight spilled out onto the tiled kitchen floor, and he waltzed outside, being as cautious to close the door silently as he had opened it.

There she was, the ninja was sitting atop the slanted platform that was used as a sort of steps to get to the inside of the airship. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and her forehead was balancing atop them. Her puffy arms, credited to the olive green and obsidian parka, were wrapped around her knees, fingers linked together loosely. She pulled her knees even closer to herself, and sighed softly, almost inaudibly to Vincent.

He watched her, observing how her coat hadn't even bothered to have been zipped up, and was hanging open, revealing her forest green top which was flaunting her tanned middle. With that realisation, he noticed that it had grown slightly warmer than it had been the previous day, warm enough that it didn't bother her to have her coat open. Not to mention she didn't bother to put on her snow pants, and was waltzing around in her beige shorts.

He blinked, and she finally looked up, noticing his presence. He instantly noticed that there were dark circles painted under her eyes, helping her to look completely and utterly exhausted, as if she hadn't slept for a month straight.

"You appear to be tired, go try to get some rest before everyone awakens," he said, and she shook her head faintly, before rubbing her right eye with her hand tiredly. "I take it you've finished your turn for watch?"

"No, Cid woke up, and took Barret's place, stopping in to tell me that he wanted my turn, and that was that. It's not like I can sleep anyway. Last night was hell, complete hell. You'd think it would be paradise with having a real bed and all. Guess not," she said, words accompanied with another half-hearted sigh. "Guess how many hours of sleep I got. Here, screw guessing, I'm banking around two, if that."

"Why only two? What were you doing during the night?" he asked, and walked up the platform towards her, before taking a seat right beside her.

"Thinking. I kept waking up every now and then, say every fifteen minutes or so, and then it would take me forever to get back to sleep, because I would be thinking. I'm so damned tired, but I can't stop thinking long enough to get me to sleep. God, I feel like dying," she muttered, glancing at the gunslinger for a moment.

"Thinking about what?" he asked inquisitively, staring down at her with his crimson orbs, and she looked back at him, their eyes meeting for a split second before she broke their gaze.

"Things. Just things," she said, and she paused for a minute, before daring the ask the question that had been plaguing her since she'd read the journal. "Were you awake when Hojo… did that do you? Did you feel it all?"

His jaw tightened, and his muscles knotted themselves over a few times, winding himself up like a child's plaything. The question had taken him aback, one he had most definitely not expected to happen, and he continued to gaze down at her, puzzled.

"What brought about this… random question?" he asked, and she shrugged her shoulders quickly, too quickly that he found it suspicious.

"I dunno, I'm just a random person I guess," she said, and mustered up an innocent grin, which caused him to sigh. An obvious lie.

"You're a horrible liar, Yuffie. Tell me what provoked that question," he demanded.

"Only if you promise that you'll answer my question, and maybe some others I have," she said, crossing her arms arrogantly across her chest.

"Depending on the other questions, fine, now tell me," he said coolly, and she rolled her eyes at his persistence.

"Ok, fine, don't get your boxers all up in a twist… or briefs, I don't know what you wear. Maybe you go commando, which would throw that saying right out the window, but hey—"

"Yuffie. Avoiding answering the question isn't helping," he said, shaking his head, and she grinned slightly.

"Eh, fine, fine. Well, you see, I was reading Hojo's journal, and you know… stumbled across some things. I mean his scientific entries were just so fascinating I could hardly control myself—"

"Yuffie."

"Ok, fine, I was looking for blackmail. Are you happy?" she snapped, lips curling in a childish pout.

"Did you find what you were searching for?" he asked coldly, and her brows furrowed.

"Oh come on, it was only for fun. And obviously I didn't, or I would have brought it up already. Jeez," she said, and her playfulness seeped away, her serious façade replacing it. "You said you'd answer my question."

He simply stared at her for a long time, and she almost wasn't sure he was going to answer. Finally, he sighed, and his eyes flicked from her face, downward to the metal platform they sat upon.

"Yes, I felt everything. I didn't have the luxury of passing out, and escaping the pain. I felt it as he cut my flesh, as he inserted various things, I felt everything," he explained, glancing at her, watching her expression as a twisted look of sympathy crossed her face.

"You felt everything. How… how could someone do that to you Vinnie? How could he?" she asked, staring at him, demanding an answer, and he chuckled bitterly, an angry sound that nearly made her jump in surprise.

"He was never particularly fond of me, and of course, I was a perfect candidate for such an experiment. I was the only one that was close enough to… to both of them to be manipulated. I was the only person assigned to watch them 24/7," he said, his words filled with some emotion caught between anger, bitterness, and anguish.

When he said _them_, Yuffie knew that he meant both Hojo, and his dear Lucrecia.

"You still love her, don't you? Even after all she did to you, even though what happened was partially her fault," she asked him, and her words held a sort of bitterness, and sudden resentment, that made him cock an eyebrow.

There was a long pause, and he was enraptured in his memories and thoughts once more.

"I'm not going to answer that," he said quietly, and her muscles tensed.

"That's a yes. I don't understand you, Vincent," she said, her voice suddenly very tired, and he twisted his head to get a good look at her.

"You don't chose who you care for. You just do. That's all there is to it," he retorted, his voice surprisingly calm. "It's not what one would consider logical. It just is."

A veil of silence fell upon them, and they both simply sat together, dwelling on their own unasked questions, and unsaid words. Memories of pasts you can't change, and of things now lost.

He heard the sound of muffled voices, and cocked his head as the back door was pulled open, and a drowsy Cid peaked his head out of the door. Something flicked in his periwinkle eyes, a sort of bewilderment clashed with surprise, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"So, now you two are best pals. The world really is going to hell," he muttered, leaning against the doorway as the door tipped open fully.

He winced as the bright morning light poured down into his face, rays weaved of gold, and he raised his hand to shade his eyes. Neither of them answered him, Vincent merely stared at him, crimson eyes drained of all and any emotion. Yuffie didn't even bother looking at him, she just pulled her knees to her chest, and balanced her forehead on them, returning to the position she had previously been in.

"Christ, why's everyone in such a depressing mood?" he muttered, and again, neither of them replied. His words were swept away with the faint breeze, drifting away as if it had never even happened.

"Well, are you guys just going to sit there like a pair of ninnies? Let's get inside," he growled, frustrated at their lack of responses.

Cid walked into the kitchen, not bothering to close the backdoor behind him, automatically assuming that they would do his bidding. Vincent sighed, not exactly wanting to move, but not wanting to start a pointless argument with him.

He forced himself up, giving a quick glance to the tired ninja, and began his way down the platform. His golden boots clicked against the metal rhythmically as he stepped down, and he paused as he reached the bottom, turning his form slightly to see if she would follow him.

She'd moved only slightly, only enough to cock her head and watch him, stare at him from her place at the opening of the airship. Her slate eyes were fixated on his face, lips parted, although only slightly, face filled with something he couldn't identify.

When she realised that he was watching her, she finally stood up, brushing off her shorts habitually, before sluggishly travelling down the metallic slanted platform towards him. With that, he turned around, and headed inside the house, cape trailing behind him, and Yuffie couldn't help but feel like she was stuck in one of those old Dracula films.

Yuffie stepped inside the considerably warmer kitchen, uncaring of the noise she was making when she slammed the door behind her, and gazed around, noticing that everyone was up and about, including Shera. However, she couldn't help but notice that they didn't look all that much unlike her, with their tired eyes, and sloth-like motions.

She smelled the bitter scent of coffee, and she glanced over at Barret, who was carefully trying to pour some into a chipped and faded mug, but somehow managed to spill some over the sides, and a long string of colourful words escaped his mouth. The near black substance was coiled around the mug, not at all unlike a snake, and Barret lifted the mug, revealing a liquid ring in its place.

He watched it, weighing options in his mind, as if considering whether it was worth it to take the time to clean it up or not. He muttered something to himself that Yuffie didn't catch, and merely walked away from the small mess he'd made, finding that it was too much effort to just wipe it up.

Yuffie sighed at him, and restrained a sarcastic remark from escaping the cage of her mouth, before taking it upon herself to clean it up. Not even she was even in the mood for some witty repartee that morning. Her mind was far too tired from the lack of sleep, and once again during that week, she found herself not wanting to open her mouth.

She took a cloth in her hand, and she wiped up the mess, mildly annoyed that the big black man couldn't even take the whole two seconds to just clean up after himself. Two words came to mind with that realisation, and it danced in front of her eyes in big bold letters. Lazy ass.

Barret put the navy cup, worn and faded from overuse, to his lips, and chugged half of it down, ignoring the burning sensation as it ripped through his throat. He just needed caffeine, just needed that good kick to get him started. It had been about as good of a night for him as it had been for the young ninja. He just kept thinking of Marlene, his sweet girl. What if she got it? What if she got it and was dying? What if he wasn't there to help her?

It was a stupid thing to think, very irrational, because if something was wrong with Marlene, he would have been called… or something. She would have made sure he knew that something was wrong with her. That was a semi comforting thought, but it hadn't made the what ifs go away. The human mind was usually very irrational when it came to fear.

"Are ya feelin' better, Shera?" he asked, finally breaking the thick silence the whole room had been caught in.

She nodded her head and smiled faintly at him. "Yes, very much so," her smile then wasted away. "He's, he's a horrible man… or whatever he is."

"Hey, didn't I tell you all that there was a man? Did I not say that he was there, and you guys didn't believe me at first, you thought I was a loony. Oh no, don't believe the smartest, greatest ninja on the face of the _Earth_. I was the one who chased him off, oh yeah, I'll bet you guys are happy you have me," she said, tiredness momentarily forgotten.

"More or less," muttered Red, drawing Yuffie's attention, and she crossed her arms with faux anger.

"Jerk," she snapped, and stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

Vincent cleared his throat, which silenced the mutters of the room, and turned everyone's attention to his sun deprived face.

"We're going to be heading to Icicle Inn shortly, just thought I should inform you so you are not puzzled when we depart," stated Vincent, and for a moment, he was sure that Cid's eyes were going to fly out of their sockets.

"What! You can't leave, what happens if that asshole comes back? Shera can't fight him in her condition, and Yuffie's the only numbskull who can see him," said Cid, standing up so quickly that the chair gave a cry and flew backwards, crashing into the floor loudly.

"Hey, who are you calling numbskull, you jackass?" said Yuffie, immediately jumping to her own defence, brows furrowed with annoyance.

"Cid," said Shera, and reached over to gently touch his arm, and he gazed down at her, mildly surprised.

His muscles seemed to relax, and he sighed loudly, exhaling sharply. With that exhale, it seemed that the anger that had inflamed him so suddenly, seeped away into calmness. Her touch tamed his fury in a way that amazed most of the room, and caused them to watch, stunned to silence.

"Shera, if they leave, and he comes back, we'll be fucked," he said, his voice gruff, though a little softer.

"Cid…" she said, words barely above the tone of a whisper, and she sighed.

"He's right, god, that's new, eh?" said Yuffie, stormy eyes fixated on Shera's surprised visage. "Yeah, wherever I go, you go. That's how it's gonna be from now on, if something happened to you, Cid would try to skin me.. not that that old geezer would ever catch such a great ninja like moi, but you know what I mean."

"We must go to Icicle Inn, Yuffie, and Shera's not in the condition to do so via chocobo. Sending her out in such cold weather would put both her and her unborn child at risk," stated Vincent reasonably, crimson eyes meeting her slate ones.

"Yeah, but if he comes back, she might die… in a way, and what happens then? The kids probably a goner anyway," she retorted, eyes flicking over to the pregnant woman for an instant, before returning to the gunslinger's pale face.

"You were given the ability to destroy the being that's the cause of this all, we don't have many options here," he said, bloodstained eyes piercing downward into her face, as if trying to intimidate her into submission.

The ninja wasn't someone who was easily intimidated, particularly by someone she had come to know so well, so that idea was shot to hell.

"Both of you, stop bein' idiots. Just tell Cloud 'n 'em to come 'ere, instead of you going there. Holy shit," snapped Barret, his patience finally wearing thin over their consistent, stubborn bickering over their options. "Solves that problem right there."

Both Vincent and Yuffie were stunned into silence, and they gazed over at the large man, surprised that he'd come up with a reasonable suggestion that none of them had even thought of. Vincent nodded his head slowly, and pulled out his PHS, flipping it open with ease.

Without a greeting, Vincent simply instructed the blond man to come to Cid's house instead, and without an explanation or a goodbye, he flipped the phone closed, convinced that Cloud would do as told.

Shera sighed and slouched in her seat, convinced that it was her doing that was screwing things up. Cid looked over at his discontent soon-to-be wife, and smiled faintly, his eyes glittering with pleasantness that he had won the dispute after all.

Yuffie took a seat in one of the empty wooden chairs, and sighed, rubbing her eyes as the exhaustion decided it was time to kick back in, and overtake her in its unpleasantness. Vincent glanced down at her, her sudden movement drawing his crimson gaze.

"Yuffie, go try to get some rest. It will be a while before the others get here, and it may be better if you're at least slightly rested," he said softly, quiet enough that it didn't distract the others from the poor conversation they had somehow worked themselves into.

"You know, Vinnie, that's probably the best idea you've had all morning, and though I don't think I'll be able to go to sleep, I'll try anyway. Get me when they're here. God… so tired," she muttered, and slowly stood up, before leaving the room, her movements incredibly sluggish.

"Hey, where're ya goin'?" asked Barret, surprised as the ninja moved slowly across the room, very obviously having no intent on coming back.

Yuffie paused, movements frozen in the middle of the doorway, but she didn't turn. She seemed to contemplate if it was worth it to take the little energy she had and tell him that it was none of his business, or to just ignore that he said anything at all, and continue walking. Someone decided to answer the question for her, however the words used probably weren't the ones she was considering using.

"She's going to get some sleep, don't bother her. She will be needing it," said Vincent, eyes flicking from Yuffie's back, to Barret's shock-stained face.

The ninja sent a glance over her shoulder, stormy eyes meeting his bloodstained ones for half a second, before she twisted her head around, and continued her way to the guest room.

She couldn't help but notice a mild, but obvious heat slowly caressing her insides once again, a feeling whose meaning she feared. She licked her dry lips as her mind searched for options other than the one she feared for the heat. She didn't need that, not now, not about _him_. God, something was wrong with her. Definitely wrong with her. Maybe she was more exhausted than she thought.

But she knew that wasn't the reason. She'd been denying it for a few days now, it had begun to get painfully obvious in the ice pit that she was feeling… _something_, but by golly, did she want to admit it? Hell no. Did she want to admit it now? Doubly hell no.

So, she wasn't about to. As far as she was concerned, there was no heat. No way in hell. After this was over, they could go on their merry way, and it would have been nothing more than a tad of lust. So she thought he was hot, big damned deal. So she had a bit of a crush, also, big damned deal.

She needed to stop spending so much time around him, really, she did. The least thing she needed was to have an oh-my-god-I-think-I-love-you-so-please-make-out-with-me-right-here-right-now-damn-it kind of infatuation.

That would suck, especially with Mr. Happy, the king of angst and destroyer of fun. The opposite of her awesomeness. And still, there it was, happy as a clam, residing inside her, probably having a party with that power from hell that Aeris gave her.

Bastards were probably mocking her. Having a little get-together, while gossiping about her failure of a love life. Screw it.

She growled to herself, and pulled the covers up to her chin, and closed her eyes tightly, disbanding all of the useless, insignificant, and irrational thoughts that were ploughing through her mind viciously, a violent tidal wave driving her to the deep end.

With her mind clear (or as clear as it would get), and the house silent aside from the murmurs from the kitchen, she felt herself fall into asleep, where she seemed to be too exhausted to even dream.

* * *

Okay, so I'm not sure if I'm rushing the Yuffie/Vincent part of this, and should have made it happen more subtly for a longer period of time or something, if you see what I'm saying. Oh well. My bad.

As per usual, constructive criticism is deeply appreciated, and I give my thanks to anyone who gives it to me. XD. Tis definitely a good thing.

Another thanks clearly goes to all who reviews for this story, because it's also a mighty good thing. It deeply pleases me. .


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